NEUROIMMUNOLOGY

Coordinators

Ourania Tsitsilonis, MD, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Biology, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens

Vasiliki Kyrargyri, PhD, Researcher C, Department of Immunology, Hellenic Pasteur Institute

Teaching hours and weekly schedule

This is a 2^nd semester elective course of about 2.5 weeks that corresponds to 4 ECTs and 31 total hours of teaching including student presentations.

Description

This is an intensive 2.5-week course focused on neuroimmunology that includes lectures and student presentations.  All material will focus on learning the interactions between the immune and nervous systems and their relevance to the pathology of diseases, particularly those of the central nervous system (CNS). The course will teach basic principles of immune system function, and evidence for its involvement in nervous system function and dysfunction from the study of experimental disease models and clinical data from patients with autoimmune and neuroinflammatory diseases. The goal is that students become conversant with the extent of immune system involvement in nervous system under physiological and pathophysiological conditions. The course will be interactive, with students actively participating through their own research into, and presentations of, currently developing areas in this field.

Course Overview

The course will combine basic research and clinical experience in the field of neuroimmunology to study the involvement of the innate and adaptive immune systems in the CNS under physiological and pathophysiological conditions. The course covers the general principles of peripheral and CNS immune systems, neuroimmune interactions in health and disease, animal models for the study of autoimmune and neuroinflammatory diseases of the CNS, human neuroimmune diseases and clinical experience with current immunotherapeutics for their treatment. 

•             Basic principles of the immune system

•             Cell migration into the CNS and antigen presentation

•             CNS immune system and functions in physiology and disease

•             Neurodegeneration and neurorepair

•             Animal models- critical appraisal as models for human neuroinflammatory diseases

•             Human neuroimmune diseases

•             Immunotherapeutic approaches for neurodegenerative diseases

Skills & Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, students will:

1.            Understand the structure and functions of the peripheral immune system with relevance to neuroimmune interactions.

2.            Understand the components and functions of the endogenous CNS immune system.

3.            Be able to critically analyse results from experimental models and assess their relevance for human disease.

4.            Be conversant with the extent of immune involvement in neurological disease.

5.            Be able to appreciate the benefits and limits of current immunotherapeutics, and understand open needs for new therapies, for the treatment of human diseases.

Titles of lectures and the names of lecturers