Jointly organized by

Institut Pasteur in Ho Chi Minh City and Institut Pasteur

with kind support from ANRS & Université Pierre et Marie Curie

January 24 – February 5, 2005

at the Institut Pasteur in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

 

Teaching objectives:

The objective of this teaching is to allow the participants to acquire basic knowledge in immunology and immunophysiopathology of infectious diseases necessary or useful as a health service professional or for their university training toward biomedical research professions.

NB: This teaching is opened to staff of the three Institut Pasteur in Vietnam and to the Institut Pasteur in Cambodia, to students, researchers and health-related professionals in Vietnam and Cambodia; within the framework of regional collaborations, this course is also opened to other South-East Asian countries, in particular to Laotian and Thai participants.

Course schedule:

This course will consist in

-     Lectures, during which interaction will be encouraged, with significant time reserved for questions and discussions

-     Exercise sessions based on actual scientific problems, from original published studies, in fundamental and clinical immunology

-     Exercise sessions focused on modern immunological techniques (theoretical, demonstration, interpretation of results and critical discussion of application)

-     Lab course training - for a limited number of participants - to implement some techniques commonly used in immunology

Courses will be organized in 1h30-2h00 session with 4 sessions per day. Lab course training will last for 3 day full-time.

Fundamental basis of immunology ("BF-") :

I.   Introduction	§  History; development of fundamental concepts in immunology	BF-Ia Screen; Print
	§  Principal components of the immune system; Innate immunity/Specific immunity	BF-Ib Screen; Print
II.  Natural immunity	§  Recepteurs of innate immunity	BF-IIa Screen; Print
	§  Inflammation	BF-IIb Screen; Print
	§  Complement	BF-IIc Screen; Print
	§  Natural cytotoxicity	BF-IIc Screen; Print
III. Structure Immunoglobulins and TCR	§  Structure and function of immunoglobulins	BF-IIIa Screen; Print
	§  Isotypy, allotypy and idiotypy; Associated functions	BF-IIIb Screen; Print
	§  Functions of the antibody Fc portion	BF-IIIc Screen; Print
	§  Structure of the TCR/CD3 and BCR complexes	BF-IIIc Screen; Print
IV. Lymphocyte development	§  Origin of antibody and TCR diversity	BF-IVa Screen; Print
and diversity of Ig andTCR	§  Lymphocyte development	BF-IVb Screen; Print
V.  Lymphocyte selection	§  Cytokines & Chemokines	BF-Va Screen; Print
and functions of T & B lymphocytes	§  Peripheral B lymphocyte activation	BF-Vb Screen; Print
	§  Mechanisms of antigen presentation	BF-Vc Screen; Print
	§  Peripheral T lymphocyte activation	BF-Vd Screen; Print
	§  Notions of selection and tolerance	BF-Ve Screen; Print

Immunity against-infections ("IAI-") :

a.    Immunity to infections	IAI-a Screen; Print
b.   Immunity against intracellular pathogens	IAI-b Screen; Print
c.    Antiviral immunity	IAI-c Screen; Print
d.   Vaccination	IAI-d Screen; Print
e.    Genetics of susceptibility to infections	IAI-e Screen; Print

Exercise sessions:

The exercise sessions aim at developing your capacity to approach scientific problems with rigor. It is for you an occasion to put into practice the theoretical notions acquired during the courses in front of actual problems pulled out of original research studies.

 

Fundamental basis of immunology (5 sessions) :

1.   Natural immunity	TD-BF01
2.   Activation of T and B lymphocytes	TD-BF02
3.   Cytokines & Chemokines	TD-BF03
4.   Selection and Tolerance	TD-BF04

Immunity against infections (4 sessions) :

1.   Immunity to infections (part I)	TD-IAI01
2.   Immunity to infections (part II)	TD-IAI02
3.   Susceptiblity to infections	TD-IAI03
4.   HIV infection	TD-IAI04

Questions/Answers:

1. What is the difference between pathogenicity and virulence?

- Pathogenicity is an organism's capacity to cause disease, i.e. whether or not it can cause disease. It must be noted that pathogenicity is typically context dependent: it can be higher in some environments or on some hosts (susceptibility/resistance). Pathogenicity can also depend on the number of organisms present. To be pathogenic, an organism must be able to invade a host, multiply in the host, evade host defenses, and harm the host in some way.

- Virulence is the degree of disease an organism has the potential to cause: a highly virulent pathogen can cause significant disease whereas an avirulent microorganism can cause little or no disease.

- The terms pathogenicity and virulence are therefore closely related. Pathogenicity refers to an organism’s binary ability to cause disease or not under specific circumstances. Virulence refers to the degree of disease caused.

- Generally, virulence concerns the effects of the pathogenic to its natural host. Pathogenicity is what is observed in a given system either towards an organ or towards a target cell. The term pathogenicity must be thus associated with the model considered.

Lab course:

The objective of the lab course is to familiarize with certain techniques commonly used in immunology.

Following techniques will be implemented or demonstrated:

-        Quantification of cytokine gene expression (RT-PCR, evaluation of mRNA)

-        Measurement of cytokine concentration (ELISA)

-        Detection of intracellular cytokines production by flow cytometry

Evaluation

An evaluation questionnaire was distributed at the end of the teaching to collect the opinion and the suggestions of the participants with the aim of improving this course. The questionnaire includes several parts (general appreciation, pedagogy, organization). It allows to estimate in particular the "Contents of teachings" according to five levels of satisfaction.

Download all the questionnaires.

Download the result of the evaluation.