Mucosal immunity in the respiratory tract

Control of mycobacterial infections

Carmen Fernández work deals mainly with the study of various aspects of the humoral immune response, B cell activation, induction of memory and the influence of aging in the immune system. One important aspect in our work is to understand the communication between the innate and the adaptive systems leading to protective immune responses. Currently, we are studying the mechanisms leading to optimal local mucosal responses in the respiratory tract and to assess the participation of the innate immune system in protection and susceptibility to disease. As infection model, we frequently work with Mycobacterium in mice. 

Keywords

mycobacterial infections, B cell activation 

Selected publications

Chuquimia, O.D., Petursdottir, D.H., Periolo, N., & Fernández, C. (2013). Alveolar epithelial cells are critical in protection of the respiratory tray se creting factors able to modulate the activity of pulmonary macrophages and directly control bacterial growth. Infect Immun. 81(1):381-9

Chuquimia, O.D., Petursdottir, D.H., Rahman, M.J., Hartl, K., Mahavir Singh, M. & Fernández, C. (2012). The role of alveolar epithelial cells in initiating and shaping pulmonary immune responses. Communication between innate and adaptive immune systems. PLoS ONE. 7(2):e32125

Rahman, M.J., Chuquimia, O.D., Petursdottir, D.H., Periolo, N., Singh, M., & Fernández, C. (2011). Impact of toll-like receptor 2 deficiency on immune responses to mycobacterial antigens. Infect Immun. 79(11):4649-56

Rahman, M.J., Dégano, I.R., Singh, M., & Fernández C. (2010). Influence of maternal gestational treatment with mycobacterial antigens on postnatal immunity in an experimental murine model. PLoS One. 5(3):e9699

Arko-Mensah, J., Rahman, M.J., Dégano, I.R., Chuquimia, O.D., Fotio, A.L., Garcia, I., & Fernández, C. (2009). Resistance to mycobacterial infection: A pattern of early immune responses leads to a better control of pulmonary infection in C57BL/6 compared with BALB/c mice. Vaccine, 27(52):7418-27