Konstantinos Kilintireas, Professor of Neurology, Medical School of Athens, national & Kapodistrian University of Athens
Lesley Probert, PhD, Research Director, Department of Immunology, Hellenic Pasteur Institute
This a 2nd semester, 2 weeks elective course that corresponds to 3 ECTs and 27 total hours of teaching and student presentations.
This is an intensive three-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.
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
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.
Neuroimmunology | Lecturers |
Co-ordinators: Constantinos Kilintireas, Lesley Probert | |
Basic principles of the immune system | |
Innate immune system with relevance to nervous systems | Ourania Tsitsilonis |
Adaptive immune system I: T cells | Ourania Tsitsilonis |
Adaptive immune system II: B cells | Harry Alexopoulos |
Neural immune cells | |
Microglia | Vasiliki Kyrargyri |
Structure and function of BBB, participation in CNS autoimmunity | Dimitris Kitsos |
Blood Brain Barrier | |
CNS-directed autoimmunity | Marina Boziki |
Microbiome control of neuroinflammation | Marina Boziki |
Medical Imaging of human CNS | Dimitris Kitsos |
Human neuroimmune diseases I | |
Autoimmune encephalitis | Harry Alexopoulos |
B cell-mediated diseases- T cell-dependent/ T cell-independent | Konstantinos Kilintireas |
Neuroinflammation in neurodegerative disease | Spiros Georgopoulos |
Human neuroimmune diseases II | |
Immuno-modulating drugs in CNS autoimmune neurological diseases | Elma Evangelopoulos |
Immunosuppression in neurological diseases | Mary Anagnostouli |
Inflammatory mechanisms in the CNS | Konstantinos Kambas |
Animal models- relevance for human immunopathology | |
Models for multiple sclerosis: EAE- a model for the autoimmune components of MS | David Baker |
MS models: Translational approach | David Baker |
Live imaging T cell interactions with the BBB | Naoto Kawakami |
Immunotherapies | |
Immunotherapy of MS I: T cells and standard concept of autoimmunity | David Baker |
Immunotherapy of MS II: B cell targeting | David Baker |