Current Immunology Reviews (Discontinued) - Volume 13, Issue 2, 2017

Background: The neonatal immune system is biased toward tolerance, which is necessary to prevent attacks on commensal organisms and benign antigens. However, this tolerogenic bias also leads to overwhelming infection in many neonates each year. Methods: We review the differences between various components of the neonatal versus adult immune system and discuss how these changes affect the immune response to pathogens and vaccines. Results: B cell activity is impaired in neonates, which is partially compensated by acquisition of maternal antibodies. Regulatory T cells are abundant, and CD4 T cell differentiation is skewed away from Th1 and toward Th2 and Th17 responses. Effector functions of CD8 T cells and natural killer cells are less effective, and antigen presenting cells make fewer inflammatory cytokines. Conclusion: Nearly every component of the neonatal immune system shows differences from adults. As research progresses, a clearer understanding of the mechanisms of neonatal immune suppression will allow for the development of therapeutic interventions to help neonates overcome serious infections.

Background: The crucial role of endothelium is due to the ability of endothelial cells to receive and concurrently respond to humoral and hemodynamic stimuli. The mechanisms that mediate these reactions are: the production of endothelium-derived factors and metabolizing enzymes; the expression of binding proteins and adhesive molecules; and the consequential shape changes. In fact, a wide range of anti-atherosclerotic action substances is produced by the endothelial cells with the objective of maintaining the balance between vasoconstriction and vasodilation, and inhibit or stimulate the proliferation and migration of smooth muscle cells, thrombogenesis and fibrinolysis. Smoke, age, hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, hyperglycemia, and a family history of atherosclerotic disease may induce functional and structural changes in the endothelium that imply the progressive loss of its protective role and the development of a proatherosclerotic state called endothelial dysfunction. Methods: The evaluation of the function of endothelial cells is based on the measurement of endothelial cell response to the stimulation by vasoactive substances. The endothelial response can be assessed in the coronary arteries and peripheral circulations. On our opinion, among the techniques, the most advantageous, reproducible, minimally invasive and statistically valid, as shown in many trials, is the Endo-PAT. This technique assesses endothelial function on peripheral arteries evaluating, at the level of the distal phalanx of the index finger, the vascular response to a period of ischemia in the arm induced through occlusion of the brachial artery (for five minutes) and subsequent restoration of blood flow. An additional method that is used to evaluate the state of wellness of large arteries is arterial stiffness. Arterial stiffness can be described as a reduced capability of a vessel to dilate or contract in response to pressure changes; it is defined using two parameters: compliance and distensibility. Result and Conclusion: The present review intends to clarify the mechanisms behind the development of endothelial dysfunction, and aims to show how widely proven is the correlation between endothelial dysfunction (assessed both by Endo-PAT and sphigmoCOR) and cardiovascular diseases, such as atherosclerosis, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, stroke, coronary artery disease and heart failure. Moreover, the assessment of endothelial dysfunction may represent an integral adjuvant test to identify the predisposed patients at risk for future cardiovascular accidents, as we suggest.

Background: In this article, we aimed to discuss the current status of Dendritic cells (DCs), their subtypes, characteristics and role in immune responses and highlighted their therapeutic potential in selected diseases. Methods: A systematic and constructive analysis of peer reviewed research literature was done with reference to DCs and their functions, DC subsets and their general characteristics, role of helper T cells in health and diseases. We also conducted a narrative review of the relevant publications on DCs migration to secondary lymphoid organs and presentation of antigens to T lymphocytes in order to initiate antigen-specific immune responses. Further, emerging pharmacological targets of DCs have been discussed and they are suggested as leading targets for therapeutic immunomodulation in several chronic diseases. Results: A great body of evidence on the role of DCs in the induction of primary immune responses, promotion of immunological tolerance and in regulation of the activity of different types of effectors and regulatory T-cells involved in adaptive immune response has been discussed. The review has identified DC-based immunotherapy as a promising therapy for several diseases such as Job’s syndrome, respiratory diseases (allergy, asthma and COPD), tumor immunity, autoimmune disease, infectious diseases (tuberculoid and lepromatous leprosy, HIV infection), transplantations, metabolic disorders (type 1 diabetes) etc. Conclusions: The emergence of new classes of T-helper effector cells and their cytokines has led to a change in our understanding of therapeutic potentials of DCs. This has provided both new options and challenges for researchers involved in this field, and is likely to result in advancement in identifying and developing novel therapeutic measures and innovative strategies for several immunological chronic disorders.

Background: Aging-associated diseases are disorders typically seen with increasing frequency in the elderly people. Aging diseases include cardiovascular disease, cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. Aptamers are short single-stranded DNA or RNA oligonucleotide molecules that can bind to a specific disease biomarker with high precision and strong adhesion. They can be generated using the systemic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment or modern biological computational tools. Objective: This review aims to cover the application and prospect of various aptamers-based sensors for the different aging diseases immunodiagnostics. Methods: A literature review of the field of aptasenors and their application for the aging diseases diagnosis was conducted. The mechanisms of aptsensors for the aging disease were illustrated here with examples. Results: In this review, we summarized the advances of the aptasensors for the cardiovascular disease, cancer and neurodegenerative diseases diagnosis. The success of the aptasensors in the aging disease detection was also demonstrated here. Compared to the conventional antibodies, oligonucleotide aptamers had unique merits such as non-immunogenicity, thermal stability, and low cost. Besides, aptamers could be easily modified with reporter molecules, showing the promising future as an alternative to antibodies in many biological applications. In addition, we discussed that the challenges the aptasensors are facing, such as interfere from the complex environments of biological samples and high nuclease-sensitivity of unmodified aptamers. Conclusion: This paper reveals the potential application of aptasensors as a rapid point-of-care technology for the early aging-associated disease immunodiagnostics. Thus, the aptasensors would be used in the clinical practice for the elderly healthcare.

Background: Last years the development of various rapid methods for detection and identification of microorganisms is one of the most intensively growing research trends because they are available and in use in the industrial microbiological market today not only for microbiological diagnostics but for controlling food quality, pharmaceutical industry products and environmental control also. These methods tend to be nongrowth-based on various technology platforms. The more common technologies among them include nucleic-acid-based detection, which uses DNA or RNA targets; methods; enzymatic detection such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP) methods; flow-cytometry-based biochemical and various types of biosensors methods. The possibility of using the electro-optical method of analysis for the detection of microbial cells is very relevant and will be described in this paper. Methods: We undertook a structured search of bibliographic databases for peer-reviewed research literature using a focused review question and inclusion/exclusion criteria. The quality of retrieved papers was appraised using standard tools. The characteristics of our results were descriebed and were applied to analyse the findings of included studies using a conceptual framework. Results: In the article are described the results of the long-year research of our group devoted to developing of the real-time immunoindication (rapid detection) method basing on the registering of interactions of bacterial cells with polyclonal or phage display antibodies (the antibody-based detection) by the electro-optical analysis with the specially designed electro-optical sensor and to studying electro-optical characteristics of corresponding biological and physical processes occurring in the bacterial suspensions in the presence of various biological reagents. It was shown that the electro-optical analysis provides comparatively high sensitivity for cell detection and can be used for characterization of bacteria interactions with specific monoclonal antibodies, polyclonal antibodies or mini-antibodies. Also the theoretical fundamentals (basic principles) of the electro-optical analysis of microbial cells were described. Conclusion: The suggested electro-optical method can be recommended for analyzing of mixed cell suspensions (detection of bacterial cells in liquid phase) by using specific antibodies with further registration of their interactions measuring changes of electro-optical parameters, but without immobilization of antibodies on the solid surface (various kinds of plates).

Background: Autoimmune diseases, with emerging clinical concerns, are caused by imbalances in immune system functions. Cytokines are critical components of the immune system produced by various immune and non-immune cells. Objective: We will review the newly-introduced cytokine known as interleukin-27 (IL-27), which has both pro- and anti- inflammatory roles in immunity. Methods: Literature review of the field of immunology and cytokines in autoimmune diseases. Results: IL-27 alters the balance between the different types of T helper (Th) cells through reduction or promotion of their responses to autoimmune diseases including multiple sclerosis, ulcerative colitis, inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, autoimmune diabetes, systemic lupus erythematosus, Sjogren's syndrome, Behcet’s disease, and autoimmune aplastic anemia. Conclusions: The functions of IL-27 are currently unclear because it appears to affect different cells, cytokines, and signaling pathways differently. Further investigations are needed to clarify the role of IL-27 in autoimmune diseases. Hence, this article reviewed the multiple roles of IL-27 in autoimmune diseases and describe the influence of IL-27 on the immune system.