SUBJECT

Immunopathology

lecture

master

Faculty of Science

Biology MSc

2

Semester 2

Spring semester

1. Introductory talk about the immune system

2. Antigen specific immunostimulation: active and passive vaccination; how to design a good vaccine; old and new generation vaccines

3. Immunomodulation: bacterial adjuvants, toxins, recombinant cytokines and soluble cytokine receptors; intravenous immunoglobulin therapy

4. Antigen specific and nonspecific immunosuppression: antibody therapies; steroid and nonsteroid inhibitors of inflammation

5. Tumorimmunology: Mechanisms leading to malignant transformation; oncogenes, protooncogenes; tumorantigens; tumors of the immune system; immune mechanisms againts tumor cells

6. Immunotherapies against tumor: tumor specific T-cell clone establishment; dendritic cell therapy; cytokine therapy; antibodies specific to tumor cells; drug targeting

7. Hypersensitivity. Basic types of hypersensitivity: immediate, antibody mediated, immunocomplex mediated and cell mediated type

8. Immediate type hypersensitivity: allergens, the mechanism of allergical reactions; the role of TH2 cells, isotype switch to IgE, and IgE binding receptors; eosinophils, basophils and mast cells; possible ways of therapy

9. Immunocomplexes: the role of antigen-antibody ratio in the immunocomplex formation; effector mechenisms to eliminate immunocomplexes; immunocomplex binding receptors

10. Tolerance and autoimmunity: central and peripheral mechanisms of self tolerance; the role of Treg cells;

11. Autoimmunity: factors influencing autoimmune diseases (environmental, genetical, hormonal, immune regulation); HLA haplotype; epitope spreading; Fc-receptors and co-stimulatory pathways in the induction of autoreactive clones; systemic and organ specific autoimmune diseases

12. Immunodeficient diseases: primer (inherited) and seconder (acquired) immunodeficiency; SCID; T-cell deficiences; B-cell deficiences; deficiences of the natural immunity

13. Immunology of the pregnancy: immunological status of the foetus; factors influencing the immune response of the mother (NK cells, cytokines, immunoglobulines, progesteron, PIBF)

14. Transplantation immunology: the basis of allogen recognition; basic types of transplantation; basic mechanisms of rejection; xenotransplantation; bone marrow transplantation; possible ways to induce transplantation tolerance.

• Immunobiology. ed. C.A.Janeway. Garland Science Publishig 2006

• Selected reviews from Current Opinion in Immunology and Nature Reviews in Immunology