Corsi precongressuali

In the host, innate and adaptive immunity are the arms of a functional and well-organized immune response against several pathogens. Beside immune system, inflammation protects the host by eliminating pathogens, repairing damaged tissue, and restoring homeostasis. Inflammasome is the core component of the inflammatory response, having a crucial role in resisting pathogenic infections and maintaining immune homeostasis by releasing inflammatory soluble factors. An overactive inflammasome can also trigger a cytokine storm, leading to various inflammatory diseases and exacerbating tissue damage. During viral infections, a balanced immune/inflammatory response is prominent in resolving the infection. Innate immunity implements non cellular/cellular strategies to eliminate viruses in the early stage of infection, by priming specific T and B cells responses in the resolving phase. Viruses are able to modify host’s immune response both in acute/chronic phases of infection, by evolving mechanisms to evade or to yperactivate immune response by damaging the host. T cells have a pivotal role in controlling infectious diseases and cancer. Chimeric antigen receptor T-cells (CAR-T) therapy has emerged as a highly efficacious treatment modality for refractory and relapsed hematopoietic malignancies in recent years. Thus, it seems likely that engineered, re-directed T cells will also be able to control these diseases when naturally occurring T cells fail. A successful effector CAR-T cell therapy is designed to kill every cancer or virus-infected cell in the patient. By understanding the biology of naturally occurring T cells, these advances will help the field to engineer better T cells to function in a wide array of disease areas. In this pre-congress course we will deepen the innovative diagnostic and therapeutic aspects in the control of acute and chronic viral infections in view of the clinical and pathogenetic relevance of the host’s immune response during viral infections.