MedInTO Medicine and Surgery

Basic Pathology and Immunology

Basic Pathology and Immunology

Academic year 2023/2024

Sommario del corso

• Course objectives
• Results of learning outcomes
• Program
• Course delivery
• Learning assessment methods
• Support activities
• Suggested readings and bibliography
• Notes
• Teaching Modules
• Teaching tools
• Course card

Course objectives

The course will be divided into two main subjects: Immunology and Basic Pathology

Immunology objectives: An understanding of the immune system is central to the understanding of how the body interacts with its surroundings, and how it both protects itself and responds to infectious disease. The course leads the student through both innate and adaptive immunity, how infection is detected, and how the cells of the immune system interact to generate a response. The mechanisms underlying allergy and hypersensitivity and the immune response to tumours are also provided. The aim is to provide the understanding of the essential aspects of immunity required to understand immunological diseases, investigations and treatment.

General Pathology objectives: this part of the course will provide the molecular basis for understanding the causes, mechanisms and evolution of human diseases. Main processes such as necrosis, inflammation and tissue degeneration, which are fundamental for understanding disease development and progression, will be considered. A group of lessons will be dedicated to ONCOLOGY for understanding biomolecular mechanisms involved in tumour development and growth, as well as becoming familiar with tumour nomenclature and classification.

BASIC IMMUNOLOGY MODULE:

The students must register on the Moodle course Basic Immunology at https://biotec.i-learn.unito.it/course/view.php?id=1094

The lectures and "learning insights" will be made available on that site.

Results of learning outcomes

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

Students will achieve knowledge on fundamental mechanisms of damage and recognizing disease mechanisms regarding the impairment of tissue homeostasis, the inflammatory and immune responses, the concept of cancer development and progression and the main classifications.

In particular, regarding immune response: the students will have to understand the main cellular and molecular mechanisms by which the immune system contributes to the prevention, healing, and interplay with cellular and tissue responses that can lead to disease development in human pathology.

All of the knowledge in both modules are essential for a correct application on the different phases of the diseases (diagnosis/prognosis, therapy and prevention) in the next clinical courses.

APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

The student will have to demonstrate the ability to apply theoretical knowledge to understand the patient's pathology in order to provide the basis for the clinical correct diagnosis and/or therapy.

INDEPENDENT JUDGEMENT

Ability to identify the information necessary to understand the type of pathology and propose possible solutions in relation to the concepts learned even on the basis of diagnostic and laboratory prescriptions.

COMMUNICATION SKILLS

To demonstrate the ability to communicate in a clear and simple way their knowledge and skills (possibly with the processing of written texts or explanatory iconographic material).

LEARNING SKILLS

• ability to study independently, develop the ability to ask appropriate and pertinent questions trying, through reasoning, to clarify and solve them,
• reflect on your learning path by demonstrating that you know how to grasp strengths and weaknesses,
• identify effective attitudes to improve one's performance.

Program

GENERAL PATHOLOGY

• Tissue damage: adaptation conditions (hypertrophy, hyperplasia, atrophy, regression, metaplasia, dysplasia)
• Cell death: morphological, biochemical and molecular aspects of necrosis and apoptosis. The role of cellular redox balance
• Acute inflammation (Angiophlogosis): structure and function of the blood microvascular system. Exudate formation
• Inflammatory mediators: fluid phase mediators and cellular mediators
• Chronic inflammation (Histophlogosis): Classification and mechanism of formation of different unspecific and specific (granulomas) types of chronic inflammation
• Wound healing: tissue regeneration and reintegration
• Environmental causes of damage: physical (extreme temperatures and pressures; ionizing and non-ionizing radiation) and chemical factors
• Fever: causes, mechanisms, stages and classification
• Degenerative processes: thesaurismosis by lysosomal enzyme deficit, alcoholic and non-alcoholic steatosis, fibrosis and sclerosis, hepatic cirrhosis
• Oncology:
  • Definition of neoplasia. The neoplastic multiphasic process
  • Normal and neoplastic proliferation - Oncogenes and tumour suppressor genes
  • Cancer growth and invasiveness: molecular mechanisms of tumour infiltration and angiogenesis
  • Tumour metastases - principal routes of cancer spreading
  • Epidemiology and classification of tumours. Tumour grading and staging
  • Cancer etiology: chemical, physical, biological and genetic causes
  • Inflammation and cancer. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition
  • Tumour cachexia
  • Hereditary cancers

IMMUNOLOGY

• Overview of the immune system
• The natural immune response. The pattern recognition receptors and their ligands.
• The cytokine network.
• The complement system: activation and effector functions
• The Major Histocompatibility Complex: genomic organization and polymorphisms. Antigen presentation to T cells.
• Cells of the adaptive immune response.
• The T cell receptor. Thymic education and antigen recognition by T cells. T cell activation and effector mechanisms.
• B cells. The generation of antibodies diversity. T and B cell cooperation. Antibody production. AID and its role in class switching and somatic hypermutation. Molecular structure and effector functions of antibodies.
• Functional anatomy of the immune system
• Self-tolerance and tolerance induction to exogenous antigens.
• Hypersensitivity and Autoimmunity.
• Basic concepts in tumour immunology and immunotherapy.

Course delivery

The course mainly consists of lectures associated with exercise activities.

For the General Pathology module, lessons on site that will be uploaded on the Moodle platform and Campusnet website will be provided in the form of slides (and/or recorded lessons, audio slides).

• Exercises for Basic Pathology: in order to clarify principal lesson topics, exercises/quizzes and deepening lectures will be provided; exercise activities will consist of microscopic visualization of pathological tissue specimens. Active discussion, quizzes and seminars will be provided in order to give deep information and improve the topics of the lessons.

For the Basic Immunology module, exercises (multiple-choice, true-false, and matching questions; immunology-based problems and case studies) will be proposed to the students to test their understanding of the topic covered during the lectures. In addition, some "Learning insights" will be proposed on Vaccines, Autoimmunity, Immunodeficiency, and Tumor Immunology.

BASIC IMMUNOLOGY MODULE:

The students must register on the Moodle course Basic Immunology at https://biotec.i-learn.unito.it/course/view.php?id=1094

The lectures and "learning insights" will be made available on that site.

Learning assessment methods

• Basic Immunology module: written test (in presence through the Moodle platform). It will last 27 minutes and include 33 (multiple-choice, true/false, matching) questions. For each correctly answered question, +1; for blank or incorrectly answered questions, 0. A total score of >30.5 points will correspond to 30 cum laude.  
• General Pathology module: oral exam; the exam consists on the oral overview on 2 different topics on General Pathology module. The mark will be expressed in thirtieths and will result as media between quotations of the two questions. Oral exams are public, so  students are free to be present and listen the exams. 

The final mark (including General Pathology and Immunology modules) will be expressed in thirtieths and will be the weighted media between Basic Immunology module (4 CFU) and General Pathology module (6 CFU): [(Immunology mark x4) + (Pathology mark x 6)]/10.

The student will receive an e-mail in order to officially accept or not the final mark (weighted media).

The mark of each module can be preserved only for the next exam date.

Support activities

• General Pathology - Teachers are available to receive, by appointment agreed via email, the students in order to give further explanations (individually or in group). Slides (and/or recorded lessons, audio slides) of the frontal lessons will be uploaded on the Moodle platform and Campusnet website 
• Basic Immunology - Updated reviews (mainly from Nature Reviews Immunology) on topics covered in class will be provided for those students that want to deepen their knowledge in the field.

Basic Immunology 

• Janeway's Immunobiology, Ninth edition, K Murphy, Garland Science;
• The Immune System, Fourth Edition, P Parham, Garland Science.

General Pathology 

• Robbins & Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease, 9th Edition, Vinay Kumar, Abul Abbas, Jon Aster, Elsevier Ed.

Notes

For the lesson of General Pathology 

Students who cannot attend the lesson because  Covid positivity can ask Professor to follow the lesson via streaming on Webex plaform (in general the link is https://unito.webex.com/meet/.....and name.surname of the professor.

For the BASIC IMMUNOLOGY MODULE only: https://biotec.i-learn.unito.it/course/view.php?id=1094

The students must register on the Moodle course Basic Immunology at https://elearning.unito.it/medicina/course/index.php?categoryid=2617

The lectures and "learning insights" will be made available on that site.

Students with DSA or disabilities are kindly requested to take note of the reception services and support services offered by the University of Turin, and in particular of the procedures required for exam support.

Teaching Modules

• Basic pathology and immunology - Module of General pathology (SCB0205A)
• Basic pathology and immunology - Module of Immunology (SCB0205B)

• Teaching material
• Exams and finals
• Class schedule
• Go to Moodle
• Register for the course
• Enrolled students
• Invia email agli studenti registrati
• Export table