Tuure Kinnunen

The accumulating evidence for shingles vaccination preventing dementia starts to look very convincing!

Extremely well-written article on the first 230 years of vaccines, and on the technological advances (microbiological cultures, microscopy, genetic engineering) needed along the way to make all the modern vaccines possible!

Nice overview of emerging technologies (CAR-T and reverse vaccines) to treat #autoimmune diseases.

Interesting advance in treatment of severe T-cell leukemia. Using base-edited allogeneic CAR-T, leukemic T cells are first destroyed. This is followed by conditioning treatment, which also kills the CAR-T, and allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Basically, the whole immune system is reset.

Interesting follow-up study on the effect of Shingles vaccine on dementia: it appears that the vaccine may both prevent the disease and slow the progression in individuals already affected!

Pitää testailla tarkemmin. Voi olla että tämänkaltaiset systeemit tulevat jatkossa reviewereiden rutiinikäyttöön, joten kannattenee ajaa myös artikkelin kirjoittajan itsekriittisessä mielessä, jotta välttyisi kaikkein ilmeisimmältä kritiikiltä (jota nykyään refereet eivät välttämättä hoksaa esittää)

Kokeilin äsken juuri hyväksytyllä manullamme. Vaikutti luotettavalta ja hyvältä systeemiltä: tunnisti mielestäni hyvin keskeiset uudet havainnot ja antoi ihan adekvaattia kritiikkiä mahdollisista aukoista ja suositteli "pehmentäviä tekstikorjauksia" ja mahdollisia täydentäviä eksperimenttejä.

Yes, Tregs finally getting the spotlight they deserve! 🙌

How a Ph.D. is like riding a bike This researcher struggled in grad school—until he embraced it as a time for learning

“You are here to learn to ride a bicycle, not to invent a bicycle.”

"Now, I’m about to establish my own research group. I feel ready to design and invent my own bicycle. I’ll remind my trainees that their job, first and foremost, is to learn how to ride."

www.science.org/content/arti...

Monoclonal antibodies 50 year anniversary!

Many thanks to all our collaborators at Kuopio University Hospital, @varhahyvinvointi.bsky.social, @pohde.bsky.social, @utu.fi, @helsinki.fi, @unioulu.bsky.social, and to the funders of the study: Foundation for Pediatric Research, Päivikki and Sakari Sohlberg Foundation and ISLAB Laboratory Centre.

Taken together, our data supports the view that autoantibodies generated in JIA likely target either multi-molecular antigen structures (like dsDNA-nucleosome complexes) and/or posttranslationally modified nuclear proteins, possibly formed during inflammatory processes in the joints.

However, no purified antigen appears to explain this reactivity. Interestingly, around 20% of JIA patients exhibited antibody reactivity to artificial nucleosome-dsDNA complexes, but not to isolated nucleosomes or dsDNA.

We studied a large collection of plasma samples from JIA patients and age-matched controls, using a variety of both clinical-grade and exploratory autoantibody assays. We confirmed previous findings that autoantibodies in JIA appear to target chromatin structures.

New science out from our group! This time on autoantibody specifities in juvenile idiopathic arthritis #JIA #immunosky #medsky. @uniuef.bsky.social

It is well known that antinuclear antibodies (ANAs) are prevalent in JIA patients, but the actual autoantigen targeted has remained elusive.

Currently in Boston at +37C, luckily most of the time in air-conditioned conference halls…

Huge thanks for this big effort to all our collaborators at @uniuef.bsky.social @utu.fi @unioulu.bsky.social @helsinki.fi and to our funders: Research Council of Finland, Finnish Diabetes Research Foundation and @sigridjuselius.bsky.social

This could potentially complicate the use of cTph cells as blood biomarkers in autoimmune diseases.

Finally, we show that the CXCR5-PD1hi cells are more hererogeneous at the single cell level than CXCR5+PD1hi cells and TCR sharing is demonstrated also with CXCR5-PD1lo cells. This suggests that the putative "cTph" cells contain other T cell subsets besides those with a true Tph signature.

Second, we investigated the phenotype of cTfh and cTph using flow cytometry and single cell omics. We confirm previous studies that blood CXCR5-PD1hi (cTph) and CXCR5+PD1hi (cTfh) cells share B-cell helper features. However, no phenotypic changes are seen in T1D, just an increase in frequency.

It turns out that no changes are seen at this point, only later, i.e. a few years before clinical disease onset, and more dominantly for cTph than cTfh cells, suggesting that the increase of these cells in blood is associated with disease progression and hypothetically ectopic lymphoid structures.

Here, we addressed a few outstanding questions. First: what is the exact timing of cTfh and cTph increase during the disease process? For this, we analysed rare samples collected at the time of seroconversion, i.e. the earliest detectable time point of autoimmunity.

Links to the previous studies:

diabetesjournals.org/diabetes/art...

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

This study complements our earlier studies on the role of these "B-cell helper" T cells in T1D, where we have shown that both cTfh and cTph are increased in the blood of children with newly diagnosed T1D and also in prediabetic autoantibody-positive (AAb+) children.

The Frequency but not the Phenotype of Circulating Peripheral T Helper Cells is Increased at Later Stages of Progression to Type 1 Diabetes Frequencies of circulating T peripheral helper (cTph) and activated T follicular helper (cTfh) cells increase close to the diagnosis of clinical type 1 diabetes, but not at the onset of autoimmunity.....

New results on the role of circulating T follicular (cTfh) and T peripheral helper (cTph) cells in type 1 diabetes out at @eurjimmunol.bsky.social: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

#immunosky #T1D #autoimmunity

There is always the Midsummer next year!

Vaccines are rigorously tested, they are effective, and they save lives. More than 150 million lives have been saved in the past 50 years thanks to vaccines!

But you may be worried about what's in them?
So, let’s break it down ⬇

Great news, well deserved! Congratulations Eliisa!

Postdoctoral Researcher/Doctoral Researcher/Project Researcher, Translational Immunology The University of Eastern Finland is inviting applications for a Postdoctoral Researcher/Doctoral Researcher/Project Researcher (Translational Immunology) position in Kuopio. The position will be fill

Interested in translational human immunology? We are currently recruiting a PhD student or a post-doc to work on an exciting project to to study immune changes leading to the development of type 1 diabetes. #immunosky #sciencejobs uef.varbi.com/en/what:job/...

Multiple recent studies, including 3 impressive natural experiments, consistently show a link between Shingles vaccines and reduced dementia. This week a nationwide S Korea study added a reduction of cardiovascular events
My summary Table. More here on dementia erictopol.substack.com/p/the-shingl...