6^th International Conference and Expo on Immunology October 24-25, 2016 Chicago,IL, USA

Biography:

Paloma Manea is a Specialist in Cardiology and Internal Medicine, competence in echocardiography and Lecturer at Grigore T. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Iasi, Romania. In 2013, she discovered the 6^th case (there are only 5 communicated cases, worldwide) of spontaneous closure of an interventricular septal defect after a myocardial infarction. She has published and communicated 80 scientific works. Her main research areas are related to angiotensin-renin-aldosterone system, skin cancer, correlations between dentistry and medical diseases and geriatric pathology.

Abstract:

The study monithorized 42 patients with renovascular hypertension, due to renal artery stenosis, followed for 24 months. The patients were divided in 2 groups: Group A with systolic dysfunction and group B without systolic dysfunction. Clinical approach and laboratory parameters (serum creatinine, creatinine clearance, transaminases, serum electrolytes, glycemia, lipid profile, complete blood count, brain natriuretic peptide-BNP, high sensitivity C reactive protein, microalbuminuria, complement C3, electrocardiogram, transthoracic echocardiogram, renal artery sonogram) were performed every 6 months. The statistical analysis revealed a strong correlation between low levels of complement C3 and severe systolic dysfunction (r=0.826 and p=0.02). Previous studies noticed the implication of complement C3 in renal ischemia, especially in animal models but it seems that this C3 fraction is also connected with the severity of systolic dysfunction, in chronic renal ischemia. This observation will open new perspectives for establishing a long term prognosis of renovascular hypertension, complicated by systolic heart failure; also, it will offer us a better understanding of this disease for improving therapeutic strategy.

Biography:

Huiyun Zhang has completed her PhD in Pathophysiology from Shantou University Medical School in 2007 and Postdoctoral studies from the McMaster University in 2014. She is the Director of Pathophysiology Department, Liaoning Medical University, the Associate Director of Allergy and Clinical Immunology Research Centre, the First Affiliated Hospital of Liaoning Medical University and the Associate Director of Translational Medicine Research Institute, Liaoning Medical University. She has published more than 26 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an Editorial Board Member of repute.

Abstract:

Since accumulated information indicate that there are several distinctive subtypes of regulatory T-cells (Tregs) in man and each of them seems to play different role in controlling immune system, which complicates the involvement of Tregs in allergy. After introduction of the six subsets of Tregs as well as the corresponding characteristics in our published paper, the roles of the individual subsets of these Tregs were studied. And the results showed that Tregs consist of a small proportion of CD4+ T-cells, including 5.3% of CD4+CD25+FOXP3+ T-cells and 0.1% of CD4+CD25+FOXP3 T-cells (Tr1 cells) in HC peripheral blood; IL-10+ Tregs are major population of Tregs (up to 75.2%), whereas IL-10+ TGF-β1+ Tregs (iTregs) only occupy approximately 3% Tregs in peripheral blood; Down-regulation of Tregs in allergy is mainly a consequence of reduced number of IL-10+ Tregs in peripheral blood; Not only allergic conditions, but also eczema showed down-regulation of Tregs; Approximately 55.5% Tregs are CD127 in peripheral blood and this cell population was dramatically enhanced by up to 90% in allergic conditions; CD8+Tregs (CD8+FOXP3+IL-10+) exhibit a small proportion (1.2%) of CD8+ cells in peripheral blood, and they are decreased under allergic conditions; IL-17+Tregs (CD4+CCR6+FOXP3+IL-17+) rarely exist in peripheral blood. Therefore it is proposed that there may be a novel balance between IL-10+ Tregs and CD127-Tregs which suggests that targeting Treg therapy should be focused on these two cell populations.

Biography:

Magdalena Tary-Lehmann is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Case Western Reserve University (CASE), Department of Pathology, Co-Founding Scientist and Chief Scientific Officer for Cellular Technology Limited (CTL). She has published more than 75 papers in peer-reviewed journals. She provides guidance and oversight for technical operations in the CTL contract laboratory, ensuring the ongoing scientific excellence of CTL. Over the past decade, she has worked with clients to develop and validate reference samples and controls for use in regulated immune monitoring assays.

Abstract:

Assessing immunogenicity is a challenge in the biopharmaceutical industry, as an increasing number of new drugs and vaccines aim to elicit a response from the cellular components (e.g., T cells) of the immune system. Measurements of antibodies in bodily fluids (e.g., by ELISA) have provided robust and reproducible results for decades and such assays have been validated for monitoring of B-cell immunity. In contrast, measuring T-cell immunity has proven to be more of a challenge, due to the need to test live cells in functional assays ex vivo. While T cells play a critical role in tumor rejection, reliable measurements of antigen-specific T cell responses ex-vivo remain seemingly problematic as typically, T cells occur in very low frequencies in test samples, such as peripheral blood. Therefore, monitoring antigen-specific T cells and their effector functions is critical for the understanding of diseases and for proper assessments of the efficacies of specific cancer immune therapies. In addition, for an assay to reliably measure T-cell functions, it needs to be warranted that the test conditions are such that the function of T cells in vitro remains unimpaired relative to ex vivo. In theory, several techniques are available, including the use of HLA/peptide tetramers, intra-cellular cytokine staining, ELISA and ELISPOT. In praxis, however, only ELISPOT assays might meet this need, because of the requirement for very high sensitivity to detect the rare antigen specific T cells, the limited number of cells obtainable from patients, the assay’s independence of the HLA genotype of the test subjects, and the ease of performing the assay. Divergent expression profiles of tumor antigens, even within the tumor of a single patient, make it difficult to come up with a general tumor vaccine or to customize immune therapy for an individual patient. Most tumor antigens correspond to normal self-proteins, against which T cell tolerance has been established, either in the thymus or in the immune periphery. However, this negative selection of the auto-antigen- (tumor antigen) specific T cell repertoire is inherently incomplete, being defined by the T cell activation threshold with the density of the nominal antigen and of co-stimulatory molecules exerting synergistic effects. Tumor antigens typically are cryptic auto-antigens and determinant spreading can render cryptic tumor antigens immunogenic, thereby leading to tumor rejection and resulting in protective anti-tumor immunity. Examples of such successful T cell monitoring in tumor models will be presented.

Biography:

Peisong Gao is currently an Associate Professor of Medicine at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. He has received his MD degree and Pulmonary Medicine Training in The Fourth Military Medical University, China. From July 1997 to January 1999, he was a Visiting Research Fellow in Oxford University. He subsequently moved to the University of Wales Swansea for his PhD working in Molecular Genetics of Asthma. In 2002 he became a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Division of Allergy & Clinical Immunology at Johns Hopkins. In 2008 he was promoted to Assistant Professor. His research has been greatly recognized by several awards including the 2004 Research Excellence Award, the 2007 Interest Section Award and Outstanding Pediatric Allergy, Asthma and Immunology Award from AAAAI. His studies mainly focus on gene, environment and development of asthma. He has published more than 60 papers in reputed journals.

Abstract:

We proposed the existence of a protective mechanism through which mannose receptor (MRC1/CD206) limits allergic inflammation via allergen clearance and its intronic miRNA511-3p. Mrc1-null (Mrc1^-/-) mice showed significant reduction in cockroach allergen uptake compared with WT mice and consequently Mrc1^-/- mice had greater lung inflammation, IgE levels and cytokine production in a cockroach allergen-induced mouse model compared to WT mice. MiR-511-3p, encoded within the MRC1 gene was shown to be co-regulated with Mrc1. Macrophages from Mrc1^-/- mice showed significantly reduced levels of miR-511-3p and a M1 phenotype whereas over-expression of miR-511-3p rendered macrophages to exhibit a M2 phenotype. Further, delivery of miR-511-3p in mice led to a significant reduction in cockroach allergen-induced inflammation and this effect was confirmed in the bone-marrow chimeric mice receiving hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HS/PCs) over expressing miR-511-3p. The serum levels of miR-511-3p were significantly lower in human asthmatics compared to non-asthmatic subjects. Profiling of macrophages with or without miR-511-3p over-expression identified 729 differentially expressed genes, wherein the level of ptgds2, encoding PGD2 synthase and its product, PGD2 was significantly lower, which might contribute to the protective effect of Mrc1 and miR-511-3p. Collectively, these studies suggest that Mrc1 and its intronic miR-511-3p mediate protection against allergen-induced lung inflammation.

Biography:

Hana Zelenkova has been active in Dermatovenerology since 1973. Since 2000 she has been directing her own Private Clinic of Dermatovenereology. She has given more than 650 expert lectures in Slovak Republic as well as abroad and has 420 scientific publications to her credit. She is the Founder and President of the Slovak Society for Aesthetic and Cosmetic Dermatology President of the traditional international DERMAPARTY congress.

Abstract:

Poor healing wounds of varying aetiology and localization have been the centre of attention among specialists due to the constantly growing number of patients suffering from this problem. The therapy must be based on the stage of healing of the wound; however, according to the TIME model it is necessary to prepare the bottom of the poor healing wound considering biofilm, infection and other circumstances. Systemic application of antibiotics has shown no effect in most cases and what has been gaining attention lately are topical antibacterial preparations including iodine, silver, enzymes, etc. Staphylococci appear in the bottom of the defect quite often and complicate the healing process, not to mention MRSA in quite many cases. The presentation includes the results we have obtained in successfully eliminating Staphylococci including MRSA using Staphylococcus phage lysate developed for topical use only. Its role is to disrupt Staphylococcus cells in the place of infection. After the infection is eliminated, the second stage of healing sets on and common conventional preparations are used. This method significantly shortens the time of healing. The presented results have been obtained in a group of 69 patients with venous ulcerations on lower extremities. Attention should be paid to the great effect of the said Staphylococcus phage lysate and successful elimination of MRSA in 9 patients.

Biography:

Qing Jiang is a Professor in Nutrition Science at Purdue.  She has focused on different forms of vitamin E and novel vitamin E metabolite long-chain carboxychromanols with respect to their anti-inflammatory and anticancer activities in cell-based and preclinical studies.  Her lab has developed various analytical methods for quantifying vitamin E metabolites.   Dr. Jiang has 45 publications and obtained three patents.  She is a member of the editorial board of Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry.  She has served as a reviewer in study sections of NIH and USDA.  She is a recipient of E.L.R. Stokstad Award for outstanding fundamental research in nutrition from American Society for Nutrition and University Faculty Scholar Award from Purdue.

Abstract:

Vitamin E forms are substantially metabolized to various carboxychromanols including 13’-carboxychromanols (13’-COOHs) that are found at high levels in feces. However, there is limited knowledge about functions of these metabolites. Here we studied dT-13’-COOH and dTE-13’-COOH, which are metabolites of d-tocopherol and d-tocotrienol, respectively. Both 13’-COOHs are much stronger than tocopherols in inhibition of pro-inflammatory and cancer promoting cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and 5-lipoxygnease (5-LOX) and in induction of apoptosis and autophagy in colon cancer cells. The anti-cancer effects by 13’-COOHs appeared to be partially independent of inhibition of COX-2/5-LOX. Using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry, we found that 13’-COOHs increased intracellular dihydrosphingosin and dihydroceramides after short-time incubation in HCT-116 cells and enhanced ceramides while decreased sphingomyelins during prolonged treatment. Modulation of sphingolipids by 13’-COOHs was observed prior to or coinciding with biochemical manifestation of cell death. Pharmaceutically blocking the increase of these sphingolipids partially counteracted 13’-COOH-induced cell death. Further, 13’-COOH inhibited dihydroceramide desaturase without affecting the protein expression. In agreement with these mechanistic findings, dTE-13’-COOH significantly suppressed the growth and multiplicity of colon tumor in mice. Our study demonstrates that 13’-COOHs have anti-inflammatory and anticancer activities may contribute to in vivo anticancer effect of vitamin E forms and are promising novel cancer prevention agents.

Biography:

Professor Min Fang got her Ph.D from the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, CAS in 2003. She did her postdoc training in Fox Chase Cancer Center in USA mainly on studying the pathogenesis of viral infection, as well as the mechanisms by which vaccines afford protection. She joined the Institute of Microbiology, CAS in June, 2012 as a professor supported by “Thousand Young Talents Program” of the China’s government. Her work was published in esteemed journals such as: Immunity, J Exp Med, PNAS, Plos Pathogen, etc, and multiply works were selected and referred by the “Faculty of 1000”.

Abstract:

Influenza A virus (IAV) is a major human pathogen with the potential to become pandemic. IAV contains only eight RNA segments; thus, the virus must fully exploit the host cellular machinery to facilitate its own replication. In an effort to comprehensively characterize the host machinery taken over by IAV in mammalian cells, we generated stable A549 cell lines with over-expression of the viral NS1 protein to investigate potential host factors which might be modulated by NS1 protein. We found that viral NS1 protein directly interacted with cellular Rac1 and facilitates viral replication. Further researches revealed that NS1 can down-regulates the activity of Rac1 via post-translational modifications. Therefore, our results demonstrated that the IAV blocked Rac1-mediated host cell signaling transduction to facilitate its own replication through the NS1 protein. Our findings provide a novel insight into the mechanism of IAV replication and also indicate new avenues for the development of potential therapeutic targets.

Biography:

Abstract:

Introduction & Aims: HPV testing is used as a means of triaging cervical smears with low grade squamous abnormalities or as part of co-testing with cytology. While HPV testing has a high sensitivity, it has a low specificity in detecting cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2 and above (CIN 2+) leading to unnecessary colposcopy referrals. We investigate the accuracy of the p16/Ki-67 dual immunocytochemical stain in determining the presence of CIN 2+ lesions and its potential as a superior biomarker for triage.

Materials & Methods: 97 cases of liquid based cervical smears with squamous abnormalities and corresponding histology were collected. The smears were then subjected to the dual stain and HPV testing. The sensitivity and specificity of cytology, dual stain and HPV testing were then calculated using CIN 2+ on histology as a reference standard.

Results: The sensitivity and specificity of the dual stain was 93.7% and 76.5%, cytology was 77.8% and 88.2% while HPV testing was 85.7% and 14.7%. The use of dual stain was estimated to reduce the number of unnecessary colposcopy referrals by significant numbers in women with ASCUS and LSIL if it were used as a triage marker compared to HPV and cytology co-testing.

Conclusion: The P16/Ki-67 dual stain is more specific than HPV testing when triaging low grade and atypical cytology specimens and may help to reduce the number of unnecessary colposcopy referrals. More studies should be performed to further evaluate its role in cervical cancer screening programs.