Publications by authors named "Fatima Al Ali"

Article Synopsis
  • T follicular helper (Tfh) cells, which are important for antibody production, rely heavily on the immunoreceptor PD-1, and its deficiency leads to weakened Tfh functions and impaired immune responses in mice.
  • Individuals lacking PD-1 or PD-L1 demonstrate fewer memory B cells and diminished antibody responses, highlighting the critical role of these molecules in immune system functionality.
  • PD-1 influences both the intrinsic and extrinsic aspects of B cell memory and antibody production, suggesting that disruptions in PD-1 signaling can lead to complications in immune responses, especially during anti-PD-1-PD-L1 therapies.
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We describe humans with rare biallelic loss-of-function variants impairing pre-α T cell receptor (pre-TCRα) expression. Low circulating naive αβ T cell counts at birth persisted over time, with normal memory αβ and high γδ T cell counts. Their TCRα repertoire was biased, which suggests that noncanonical thymic differentiation pathways can rescue αβ T cell development.

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Background: Allergic disorders are the consequence of IgE sensitization to allergens. Population studies have shown that certain human leukocyte antigen (HLA) alleles are associated with increased or decreased risk of developing allergy.

Objective: We aimed to characterize the relationship between HLA class II allelic diversity and IgE sensitization in an understudied Arab population.

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  • Early-career researchers need to develop skills for effectively searching and extracting information from biomedical literature, which is crucial for evaluating research results and finding publishing opportunities.
  • A hands-on training curriculum was designed to help researchers retrieve, profile, and visualize literature related to specific topics, illustrated by the ISG15 gene case.
  • Participants gain practical skills like crafting PubMed queries, identifying key concepts, measuring their prevalence, extracting information from articles, and presenting findings through an interactive web application.
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Introduction Epileptogenesis has been considered one of the most prevalent diseases affecting significant numbers of individuals worldwide. Since vitamin B12 has been reported to possess antiepileptic effects, this supports that vitamin B12 deficiency is correlated to seizure occurrence. Hence, this study aimed to evaluate the neuroprotective effects of vitamin B12 injection on pentylenetetrazole (PTZ)-induced rats.

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Introduction: Artificial intelligence (AI) and its applications are among the most discussed modern technologies today. Despite the rapidly expanding use of AI in medicine, and specifically in dermatology, only a few studies have studied the attitude of physicians toward AI.

Objective: To recognize the attitudes towards AI among dermatologists in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

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Article Synopsis
  • Patients with autosomal recessive (AR) IL-12p40 or IL-12Rβ1 deficiencies are prone to mycobacterial diseases (MSMD) due to low IFN-γ production, and may also experience chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis (CMC) from reduced IL-17A/F production.
  • The study identifies six patients with AR IL-23R deficiency, all showing MSMD symptoms, but CMC only in two, linked to specific genetic variants affecting IL-23's function.
  • IL-23 is essential for stimulating IFN-γ immunity in certain immune cells and plays a more limited role in IL-17A production, shedding light on why some patients have a higher incidence of
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Article Synopsis
  • Inborn errors affecting the immune response to IFN-γ lead to mycobacterial diseases, while errors in IFN-α/β impact defense against viral infections.
  • A study of children with complete IRF1 deficiency showed they suffered from severe mycobacterial infections but displayed normal responses to various viruses, including SARS-CoV-2.
  • IRF1 plays a crucial role in the immune response to mycobacteria, enhancing IFN-γ responses, while its absence does not significantly hinder antiviral defenses associated with IFN-α/β.
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  • The study investigates autoimmune antibodies in COVID-19 patients across different severity levels, noting the link between severe cases and the presence of these antibodies, particularly antinuclear antibodies (ANA).
  • In ICU patients, a small percentage exhibited strong and moderate levels of ANA, while no non-ICU patients tested positive, indicating a potential connection between severity and autoimmune responses.
  • The findings suggest that screening for autoimmune responses in COVID-19 patients could enhance patient management and that ANA-positive individuals may not be suitable for convalescent plasma therapy.
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The atmospheric reaction of a series of furan compounds (furan (F), 2-methylfuran (2-MF), 3-methylfuran (3-MF), 2,5-dimethylfuran (2,5-DMF), and 2,3,5-trimethylfuran (2,3,5-TMF)) with nitrate radical (NO) has been investigated using the relative rate kinetic method in the CHamber for the Atmospheric Reactivity and the Metrology of the Environment (CHARME) simulation chamber at the laboratoire de Physico-Chimie de l'Atmosphere (LPCA) laboratory (Dunkerque, France). The experiments were performed at (294 ± 2) K atmospheric pressure and under dry conditions (relative humidity, RH < 2%) with proton transfer mass reaction-time of flight-mass spectrometer (PTR-ToF-MS) for the chemical analysis. The following rate coefficients (in units cm molecule s) were determined: furan, = (1.

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Inborn errors of IFN-γ immunity can underlie tuberculosis (TB). We report three patients from two kindreds without EBV viremia or disease but with severe TB and inherited complete ITK deficiency, a condition associated with severe EBV disease that renders immunological studies challenging. They have CD4+ αβ T lymphocytopenia with a concomitant expansion of CD4-CD8- double-negative (DN) αβ and Vδ2- γδ T lymphocytes, both displaying a unique CD38+CD45RA+T-bet+EOMES- phenotype.

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Allelic diversity of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class II genes may help maintain humoral immunity against infectious diseases. In this study, we investigated germline genetic variation in classical HLA class II genes and employed a systematic, unbiased approach to explore the relative contribution of this genetic variation in the antibody repertoire to various common pathogens. We leveraged a well-defined cohort of 800 adults representing the general Arab population in which genetic material is shared because of the high frequency of consanguineous unions.

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Background: Inborn errors of immunity (IEI) and autoantibodies to type I interferons (IFNs) underlie critical COVID-19 pneumonia in at least 15% of the patients, while the causes of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) remain elusive.

Objectives: To detect causal genetic variants in very rare cases with concomitant critical COVID-19 pneumonia and MIS-C.

Methods: Whole exome sequencing was performed, and the impact of candidate gene variants was investigated.

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Purpose: Human serine/threonine kinase 4 (STK4) deficiency is a rare, autosomal recessive genetic disorder leading to combined immunodeficiency; however, the extent to which immune signaling and host defense are impaired is unclear. We assessed the functional consequences of a novel, homozygous nonsense STK4 mutation (NM_006282.2:c.

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Article Synopsis
  • At least 10% of critical COVID-19 pneumonia cases are linked to genetic defects in type I interferon immunity and autoantibodies against these cytokines, with rare X-linked variants found in 16 male individuals aged 7 to 71 years.
  • In a study involving 1,202 males with unexplained critical COVID-19, none of the asymptomatically infected participants had these deleterious variants, indicating a significant genetic component to severe illness.
  • The research highlights that X-linked recessive TLR7 deficiency plays a crucial role in about 1.8% of critical COVID-19 cases in males under 60, as effective TLR7 and plasmacytoid dendritic cells are vital for
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Article Synopsis
  • The study looks at a patient and their relatives who have unusual skin growths caused by human papilloma virus (HPV).
  • The patients have a specific genetic change that makes a part of their immune cells (T cells) not work properly, which affects how their body fights off HPV.
  • Even though their T cells don’t respond well to HPV, the patients can still make antibodies against the viruses, showing that they can fight infections differently than expected.
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The pathophysiology of adverse events following programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) blockade, including tuberculosis (TB) and autoimmunity, remains poorly characterized. We studied a patient with inherited PD-1 deficiency and TB who died of pulmonary autoimmunity. The patient's leukocytes did not express PD-1 or respond to PD-1-mediated suppression.

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Human inborn errors of IFN-γ underlie mycobacterial disease, due to insufficient IFN-γ production by lymphoid cells, impaired myeloid cell responses to this cytokine, or both. We report four patients from two unrelated kindreds with intermittent monocytosis and mycobacterial disease, including bacillus Calmette-Guérin-osis and disseminated tuberculosis, and without any known inborn error of IFN-γ. The patients are homozygous for variants (p.

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Four endemic human coronaviruses (HCoVs) are commonly associated with acute respiratory infection in humans. B cell responses to these "common cold" viruses remain incompletely understood. Here we report a comprehensive analysis of CoV-specific antibody repertoires in 231 children and 1168 adults using phage immunoprecipitation sequencing.

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Article Synopsis
  • The text discusses a patient with a rare genetic condition that leads to a deficiency in the transcription factor T-bet, resulting in a heightened susceptibility to mycobacterial diseases.
  • The patient exhibits very low levels of various immune cells that are crucial for fighting off mycobacterial infections, including natural killer (NK) cells and other specialized T cells, which also produce insufficient amounts of interferon gamma (IFN-γ).
  • Despite some immune cells functioning normally, the overall immune response is compromised, as the lack of essential immune components cannot be compensated by the remaining T cells that react to mycobacterial antigens.
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Mendelian susceptibility to mycobacterial disease (MSMD) is characterized by a selective predisposition to clinical disease caused by the Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine and environmental mycobacteria. The known genetic etiologies of MSMD are inborn errors of IFN-γ immunity due to mutations of 15 genes controlling the production of or response to IFN-γ. Since the first MSMD-causing mutations were reported in 1996, biallelic mutations in the genes encoding IFN-γ receptor 1 (IFN-γR1) and IFN-γR2 have been reported in many patients of diverse ancestries.

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Background: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) can cause severe disease in children and adults with a variety of inherited or acquired T-cell immunodeficiencies, who are prone to multiple infections. It can also rarely cause disease in otherwise healthy persons. The pathogenesis of idiopathic CMV disease is unknown.

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Prevalence of allergies has reached ~20% of population in developed countries and sensitization rate to one or more allergens among school age children are approaching 50%. However, the combination of the complexity of atopic allergy susceptibility/development and environmental factors has made identification of gene biomarkers challenging. The amount of publicly accessible transcriptomic data presents an unprecedented opportunity for mechanistic discoveries and validation of complex disease signatures across studies.

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Background: Vitamin D is a secosteroid, which was initially known for its skeletal role; however, in recent years, its functions in different organs have been increasingly recognized. In this review, we will provide an overview of vitamin D functions in the skin physiology with specific focus on its role in certain inflammatory skin conditions such as psoriasis and atopic dermatitis.

Methods: A comprehensive literature search was carried out in PubMed and Google Scholar databases using keywords like "vitamin D," "skin," "atopic dermatitis," and "psoriasis.

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