KUISCID January 2022 Newsletter
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KOÇ UNIVERSITY İŞBANK CENTER FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASES
JANUARY 2022
This is a monthly newsletter from KUISCID. We present our research output and news about our activities.
NEWS

KUISCID Annual Report

KUISCID’s one year update of research outputs and national/international activities were reported since its establishment on December 20th, 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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PUBLICATION

Immune Responses of Booster Dose After Inactivated Vaccine

Since the COVID-19 vaccination process began, we investigated the post-vaccine immune response in our center, which has become one of the most important issues in the scientific world. The results of our study were published as a preprint. In the study, we investigated neutralizing antibody levels and cellular immune (T Cell) response in individuals who received 2 doses of SinoVac (inactivated vaccine) and 3rd dose of reminder vaccine BioNTech or SinoVac. Neutralizing antibody testing, known as the gold standard for antibody response, was performed on live SARS-CoV-2 virus in our center’s BSL-3 Laboratory. In addition, T cell response was determined by stimulating peripheral blood cells with synthetic SARS-CoV-2 surface protein. As a result of our study, it was determined that the neutralizing antibody levels in individuals vaccinated with 2 doses of SinoVac vaccine and 3rd dose as BioNTech one month after the 3rd dose were 3.38 times higher than those who received the 3rd dose of SinoVac. While antibody levels were above the protective level in all individuals vaccinated with BioNTech, we detected protective levels of neutralizing antibodies in only 40% of SinoVac patients. We also observed that T Cell responses were higher in the BioNTech group than in the SinoVac group.

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RESEARCH

Nano-Antibiotics for treatment of urinary tract infections

The fact that bacteria are smart enough to gain antibiotic resistance and prevent efficient therapy, is underestimated. A combination of old-fashioned antibiotics with nanoparticle-based approaches is one of the alternative options to sufficiently treat resistant infections.

The resistance rate of ciprofloxacin, being one of the most commonly prescribed antibiotic for urinary tract infections, is high and this causes persisting infections, thus limiting the therapy. In a recent study we conducted in KUISCID (funded by TÜBİTAK, Project No: 118S547), we designed an iron oxide nanoparticle-based cargo system to carry antibiotics to infection sites and obtained efficient bacterial inhibition. Mannoside molecules within the cargo, specifically targeted the bacterial wall for a more localized release of antibiotic. Our results are promising regarding the novel approaches for the treatment of urinary tract infections, especially caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

NEWS

Respiratory viruses: Aerosol sample collection

Zeynep Ece Kuloğlu, Zeliş Nergiz, our graduate students who continue their research at the KUISCID, and Zeynep Bengi Eren, Bedirhan Haykar, 2nd year students at the School of Medicine, collecting air samples in common areas, researching respiratory viruses especially SARS-CoV-2.

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JOB OPPORTUNITY

Be a part of our team!

There will be open positions in the field of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology. To learn more about the career opportunities, you can visit our Careers webpage.

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