Meeting Report

SIRCON 2018: Pre-conference CME report

A pre-CME report on the conference of the Society of Inflammation Research- SIRCON 2018 held at API Bhavan, Bengaluru, on 18^th August 2018.

IJIR. 2018;1(1):MR1 DOI: 10.15305/ijir/v2i1/276

Published: 3 September  2018

© IJIR

Session I: Advances in immunology

The conference started with the opening remarks by the president Dr. Jyothirmay Biswas, Director of Uveitis & Ocular Pathology Department, Sankara Nethralya, Chennai. The first lecture by Dr. Chandrashekara, Medical director of ChanRe Rheumatology and Immunology Center, Bengaluru has briefed the timeline of inflammation history and underscored the need of further understanding to maintain the inflammation within the limits of being friendly before it turns out to be damaging.

This was followed by the lecture of Dr. Mohan Wani, Scientist from National Center for Cell Science, Pune. He has reported the role of IL-3 in modulation of Treg-Th17 cell development in both in vitro and  in vivo conditions, and  its  therapeutic potential in treating autoimmune diseases.

Dr. Dipyaman Ganguly, Senior Scientist from Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata has indicated that production of type I interferons by the plasmacytoid dendritic cells in response to the recognition of self-nucleic acids ligands as a crucial event in SLE pathogenesis.

Session II: Inflammation in the eye

The lecture by Dr. Arkasubhra Ghosh, HOD, Grow Research Laboratory, Narayana Nethralaya, focused on  immunomodulatory signaling in ocular surface disorders.  Subsequent lecture by Dr. Jyothirmay Biswas highlighted  the enigma associated with intraocular tuberculosis. Dr. Soumyava Basu, head of retina-vitreous and uveitis services, LV Prasad Eye Institute, Bhubaneswar reported their findings on intraocular T-cell response. Intraocular T cells are predominantly CD4+, highly proinflammatory and have antigenic specificity for both ESAT-6 and retinal auto antigens.

Session III: Autoantibodies and inflammatory parameters

The speech on  interpretation of various autoantibody tests by Dr. Renuka highlighted the autoantibody patterns and their relation to specific autoantibodies and disease, and the need of early screening of susceptible populations. Dr. Chandrashekara discussed how various inflammatory parameters can be interpreted to conclude the diagnosis. The following  presentation by Dr. Swaminathan Sethu, Scientist, GROW Research laboratory, Bengaluru briefed about autoantibodies related to ocular diseases.

Session IV: Impact of inflammation-Diabetes

Dr. Balasubrahmanyam, Dean of Research Studies & Senior Scientist, Madras Diabetes Research Foundation, Chennai, defined the role of inflammaging in metabolic disorders. He also underscored that the future pharmacological and non-pharmacological means of interventions aimed at preventing or managing metabolic disorders should focus on targeting senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP) and inflammaging. Subsequent lecture by Dr. Kamalanathan, Assistant Professor, Center for Bioseparation Technology, VIT University, Vellore detailed the impact of inflammation and non-traditional risk factors namely  hs-CRP and ApoA1 in cardiovascular diseases.

Dr. Padmamalini Mahendradas, HOD, Uveitis and Ocular Immunology, Narayana Nethralaya, Bengaluru shared various case studies and clinical outcomes associated with  different strategies used in the management of eye diseases. She also highlighted the need for various biomarkers in ocular inflammatory diseases for the targeted therapy to achieve optimal outcome. In the final lecture Dr. Chandrashekara shared his clinical experience in managing systemic autoimmune disease.

The president, Dr. Biswas extended his thanks to all the delegates and speakers, and expressed satisfaction to the organizing team in organizing the program very well.