Nicole Messina
@nicolemessina.bsky.social
230 followers 100 following 10 posts
Immunologist interested in immunoregulation, vaccines, paediatric immunology and disease risk. #TB #ID #ImmunoSky https://www.mcri.edu.au/researcher-details/nicole-messina
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Reposted by Nicole Messina
jimmunol.bsky.social
A June #TopRead identified different subtypes of neutrophils in #tuberculosis (TB) patients, indicating that neutrophils might be promising targets for TB host-directed therapy. Learn more: ow.ly/gBgR50WiiCr.
Neutrophils from tuberculosis patients are polarized toward pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory phenotypes according to the disease severity
The Editors have selected this article as a highlight of the issue.
ow.ly
Reposted by Nicole Messina
gpollara.bsky.social
V interesting step forward in discovering generalisable / public human T cell metaclones reactive to Mycobacterium tuberculosis antigens in vivo.

Potential impact for:
👉 Risk stratification
👉 Vaccine design

Do read more details in preprint 👇
#IDSky #TBSky #tuberculosis #immunosky
Reposted by Nicole Messina
Reposted by Nicole Messina
gpollara.bsky.social
In @elife.bsky.social: Type I interferon responses contribute to immune protection against mycobacterial infection doi.org/10.7554/eLif...
#TBSky #IDSky #Immunosky
work led by Gillian Tomlinson with support from @mnoursad.bsky.social & @innate2adaptive.bsky.social group (1/5)
Type I interferon responses contribute to immune protection against mycobacterial infection
doi.org
Reposted by Nicole Messina
Reposted by Nicole Messina
alissarothchild.bsky.social
Wonder which #innate responses in your animal models are shared with or distinct from humans? We did too! To answer, we teamed up with @mcampomd.bsky.social and the Hawn lab to compare human and murine alveolar and monocyte-derived #macrophage responses to #Mtb. (1/4)

#TBSky #ImmunoSky #NewPI x 2
biorxiv-immuno.bsky.social
Shared and distinct responses of human and murine alveolar macrophages and monocyte-derived macrophages to Mycobacterium tuberculosis https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.28.640814v1
nicolemessina.bsky.social
💉 After two doses of adenovirus-based or mRNA-based #COVID vaccine, cytokine and adaptive immune responses to #SARSCoV2 were similar between the #BCGvaccine and Control groups indicating that the specific effects of #COVID19 vaccines overcame the immunomodulatory effects of BCG. 💪
Similar Spike IgG and T cell IFN-gamma responses to COVID-19 vaccination in BCG-vaccinated and control participants
nicolemessina.bsky.social
🔬 Before #COVID-19 vaccination (almost a year after randomisation), healthcare workers who received #BCGVaccine had reduced cytokine responses to #SARSCoV2 compared to controls, indicating BCG-induced immunomodulation.
Forest plot showing lower cytokine responses to SARS-CoV-2 stimulation in BCG-vaccinated compared to control participants
nicolemessina.bsky.social
I’m excited to share our new study of the off-target effects of #BCGVaccine on response to #SARSCoV2 & #COVID-19 vaccines. We analysed immune responses before & after COVID-19 vaccination in healthcare workers in the #BRACE RCT. 💉🦠 #Immunology #IDsky #Immunosky doi.org/10.1002/cti2...
<em>Clinical & Translational Immunology</em> | ASI Journal | Wiley Online Library
Bacille Calmette–Guérin (BCG), the vaccine for tuberculosis, has immunomodulatory effects that may underpin its off-target effects on infectious disease risk and vaccine responses. This study used bl....
doi.org
Reposted by Nicole Messina
marcveld.bsky.social
SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody specificities differ dramatically between recently infected infants and immune-imprinted individuals

Another paper to provide more insights into antibody responses and imprinting.

www.biorxiv.org/cont...
1/9
SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody specificities differ dramatically between recently infected infants and immune-imprinted individuals
The immune response to viral infection is shaped by past exposures to related virus strains, a phenomenon known as imprinting. For SARS-CoV-2, much of the population has been imprinted by a viral spike from an early strain, either through vaccination or infection during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a consequence of this imprinting, infection with more recent SARS-CoV-2 strains primarily boosts cross-reactive antibodies elicited by the imprinting strain. Here we compare the neutralizing antibody specificities of imprinted individuals versus infants infected with a recent strain. Specifically, we use pseudovirus-based deep mutational scanning to measure how spike mutations affect neutralization by the serum antibodies of adults and children imprinted by the original vaccine versus infants with a primary infection by a XBB* variant. While the serum neutralizing activity of the imprinted individuals primarily targets the spike receptor-binding domain (RBD), serum neutralizing activity of infants only infected with XBB* mostly targets the spike N-terminal domain (NTD). In these infants, secondary exposure to the XBB* spike via vaccination shifts more of the neutralizing activity towards the RBD, although the specific RBD sites targeted are different than for imprinted adults. The dramatic differences in neutralization specificities among individuals with different exposure histories likely impact SARS-CoV-2 evolution. ### Competing Interest Statement J.D.B. and B.D. are inventors on Fred Hutch licensed patents related to the pseudovirus deep mutational scanning technique used in this paper. J.D.B. consults for Apriori Bio, Invivyd, Pfizer, the Vaccine Company, Moderna, and GSK. B.D. consults for Moderna. HYC has consulted for Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Ellume, and has served on advisory boards for Vir, Merck, Roche and Abbvie. She has received research funding from Gates Ventures. M.A.S. has received research funding from Cepheid and Pfizer and has consulted for Merck.
www.biorxiv.org
Reposted by Nicole Messina
Reposted by Nicole Messina
Reposted by Nicole Messina
Reposted by Nicole Messina
gpollara.bsky.social
👀⤵️ - @altmetric.com further cementing Bluesky as a platform for sharing and quantifying academic discussions. ⭐

And, as this thread demonstrates, it's been achieved with a good dose of humour, which never goes amiss in life or academia! 👏
#AcademicSky #IDSky #ImmunoSky #clinmicro
altmetric.com
BLUESKY MEGA-THREAD

Altmetric is thrilled and also LITERALLY RELIEVED to officially announce:

We are now tracking research attention as it happens on Bluesky!

We have been picking up posts on the site since late Oct.

Our team is on Bluesky all day answering questions.

Let's get into it!
Blueksy Mentions are now in Altmetric.

It's been 84 years meme

#AcademicSky #HigherEd #MedSky #HMSky #Altmetrics #Medlibs #Metascience
nicolemessina.bsky.social
Hi Rod, it's great seeing the community rebuild on blue sky. Would love to be added to your immunology starter packs.
Reposted by Nicole Messina
matthiasnau.bsky.social
Want to make beautiful scientific figures? Easy!

The NIH released a library of 2000+ free scientific illustrations called *BioArt*.

Check it out! bioart.niaid.nih.gov

#AcademicSky #PsychSciSky 🧠🟦 🧪
Reposted by Nicole Messina
cyrilpedia.bsky.social
'For scientists the network is starting to look like home. Academic institutions, scientific journals and conferences, and international organizations such as the World Health Organization have established a presence there in recent days.'
www.science.org/content/arti...
Like ‘old Twitter’: The scientific community finds a new home on Bluesky
After recent changes to Elon Musk’s X, a gradual migration turns into a stampede
www.science.org