scholarly journals Towards a Systems Immunology Approach to Understanding Correlates of Protective Immunity against HCV

Viruses ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 1871
Author(s):  
Naglaa H. Shoukry
Keyword(s):  
Systems Biology ◽  
Protective Immunity ◽  
Recent Progress ◽  
Viral Infections ◽  
Vaccine Development ◽  
Immune Functions ◽  
The Past ◽  
Systems Immunology ◽  
Tremendous Progress ◽  
Made In

Over the past decade, tremendous progress has been made in systems biology-based approaches to studying immunity to viral infections and responses to vaccines. These approaches that integrate multiple facets of the immune response, including transcriptomics, serology and immune functions, are now being applied to understand correlates of protective immunity against hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and to inform vaccine development. This review focuses on recent progress in understanding immunity to HCV using systems biology, specifically transcriptomic and epigenetic studies. It also examines proposed strategies moving forward towards an integrated systems immunology approach for predicting and evaluating the efficacy of the next generation of HCV vaccines.

scholarly journals Mucosal Vaccine Development Based on Liposome Technology

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentina Bernasconi ◽  
Karin Norling ◽  
Marta Bally ◽  
Fredrik Höök ◽  
Nils Y. Lycke
Keyword(s):  
Immune Responses ◽  
Protective Immunity ◽  
Recent Progress ◽  
Vaccine Development ◽  
Mucosal Vaccine ◽  
Limiting Factor ◽  
Successful Development ◽  
Mucosal Vaccines ◽  
Increasing Demand ◽  
Portal Of Entry

Immune protection against infectious diseases is most effective if located at the portal of entry of the pathogen. Hence, there is an increasing demand for vaccine formulations that can induce strong protective immunity following oral, respiratory, or genital tract administration. At present, only few mucosal vaccines are found on the market, but recent technological advancements and a better understanding of the principles that govern priming of mucosal immune responses have contributed to a more optimistic view on the future of mucosal vaccines. Compared to live attenuated vaccines, subcomponent vaccines, most often protein-based, are considered safer, more stable, and less complicated to manufacture, but they require the addition of nontoxic and clinically safe adjuvants to be effective. In addition, another limiting factor is the large antigen dose that usually is required for mucosal vaccines. Therefore, the combination of mucosal adjuvants with the recent progress in nanoparticle technology provides an attractive solution to these problems. In particular, the liposome technology is ideal for combining protein antigen and adjuvant into an effective mucosal vaccine. Here, we describe and discuss recent progress in nanoparticle formulations using various types of liposomes that convey strong promise for the successful development of the next generation of mucosal vaccines.

Serum albumin: recent progress in the understanding of its structure and biosynthesis.

1977 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
T Peters
Keyword(s):  
Serum Albumin ◽  
Recent Progress ◽  
Secreted Proteins ◽  
Long Chain Fatty Acids ◽  
The Past ◽  
Covalent Structure ◽  
Clinical Methodology ◽  
Single Peptide ◽  
Long Chain ◽  
Made In

Abstract Major discoveries have been made in the past few years on the structure and mode of biosynthesis of serum albumin. The complete amino acid sequence of this protein has been determined, and its covalent structure shown to be a single peptide chain grouped into a series of nine disulfide-bonded loops. These loops appear to associate into three similar domains. By study of isolated fragments of the molecule it can be demonstrated that the binding of billirubin and the primary binding of long-chain fatty acids are functions of separate domains. The biosynthesis of albumin has been found to involve a precursor form, termed "proalbumin", in which a basic hexapeptide is attached to the amino end of the chain. Similar precursor forms are now known to have a role in the formation of other secreted proteins, but in the case of albumin the purpose of the additional peptide is not clear. Clinical methodology for albumin assay has advanced but little despite--or perhaps in part because of--the increasing use of automation. Hope for improvement is foreseen in the advent of immunochemical procedures and in a better understanding of the specificity of dye-binding reactions.

scholarly journals Plant-derived alkaloids as anti-viral agents

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 6174-6182
Author(s):  
Nagasathiya Krishnan ◽  
Velmurugan Devadasan ◽  
Pachaiappan Raman
Keyword(s):  
Viral Infections ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Extensive Study ◽  
Human Immune Deficiency Virus ◽  
Pharmacological Activities ◽  
Viral Pathogens ◽  
The Past ◽  
Medicinal Use ◽  
Human Immune ◽  
Made In

Humans are prone to many viral infections, most of them not causing diseases, and some will do. The new pandemic situation in global development and comfort to travel have highlighted their protection as a crucial problem in people’s health and safety even though significant advancements are being made in the making of vaccines and drugs. The provenance of viral mutants generally threatens immunisation and effective anti-viral treatments. The discovery of novel anti-viral drugs is, therefore of paramount importance. The secondary metabolites from the plants with pharmacological activities are regarded as an exemplary repository for this diagnosis.  An extensive study of phytochemicals and their mechanisms of action against the viruses might help in controlling harmful viruses. Many phytochemical entities, including terpenes, flavonoids, polyphenol, and phenolic compounds, have been studied for their anti-viral activity. Particularly in alkaloids, cutting edge study is making way to uncover innovative therapeutic strategies. Most of the alkaloids are being used as anti-viral agents, act against few prominent viral pathogens such as coronavirus (CoV), human immune deficiency virus (HIV), systemic acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and respiratory virus (RSV). In this review, we intend to summarise the medicinal use of plant-derived alkaloids utilised to cure viral diseases in the past four decades.

scholarly journals Aptamers in Virology—A Consolidated Review of the Most Recent Advancements in Diagnosis and Therapy

Pharmaceutics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 1646
Author(s):  
Tejabhiram Yadavalli ◽  
Ipsita Volety ◽  
Deepak Shukla
Keyword(s):  
Viral Entry ◽  
Viral Infections ◽  
High Specificity ◽  
Host Cells ◽  
Short Oligonucleotide ◽  
The Past ◽  
Viral Antigens ◽  
Diagnosis And Therapy ◽  
Viral Diagnosis ◽  
Made In

The use of short oligonucleotide or peptide molecules as target-specific aptamers has recently garnered substantial attention in the field of the detection and treatment of viral infections. Based on their high affinity and high specificity to desired targets, their use is on the rise to replace antibodies for the detection of viruses and viral antigens. Furthermore, aptamers inhibit intracellular viral transcription and translation, in addition to restricting viral entry into host cells. This has opened up a plethora of new targets for the research and development of novel vaccines against viruses. Here, we discuss the advances made in aptamer technology for viral diagnosis and therapy in the past decade.

scholarly journals Vaccine Design and Vaccination Strategies against Rickettsiae

Vaccines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 896
Author(s):  
Anke Osterloh
Keyword(s):  
Protective Immunity ◽  
Vaccine Development ◽  
Intracellular Bacteria ◽  
Obligate Intracellular ◽  
Vaccination Strategies ◽  
The Past ◽  
Rickettsial Infections ◽  
Causative Agents ◽  
Prophylactic Vaccines ◽  
Obligate Intracellular Bacteria

Rickettsioses are febrile, potentially lethal infectious diseases that are a serious health threat, especially in poor income countries. The causative agents are small obligate intracellular bacteria, rickettsiae. Rickettsial infections are emerging worldwide with increasing incidence and geographic distribution. Nonetheless, these infections are clearly underdiagnosed because methods of diagnosis are still limited and often not available. Another problem is that the bacteria respond to only a few antibiotics, so delayed or wrong antibiotic treatment often leads to a more severe outcome of the disease. In addition to that, the development of antibiotic resistance is a serious threat because alternative antibiotics are missing. For these reasons, prophylactic vaccines against rickettsiae are urgently needed. In the past years, knowledge about protective immunity against rickettsiae and immunogenic determinants has been increasing and provides a basis for vaccine development against these bacterial pathogens. This review provides an overview of experimental vaccination approaches against rickettsial infections and perspectives on vaccination strategies.

scholarly journals Tooth Bioengineering and Regenerative Dentistry

2019 ◽  
Vol 98 (11) ◽  
pp. 1173-1182 ◽  
Author(s):  
P.C. Yelick ◽  
P.T. Sharpe
Keyword(s):  
Tissue Engineering ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Basic Research ◽  
Dental Tissue ◽  
Dental Tissues ◽  
The Past ◽  
Tremendous Progress ◽  
Regenerative Dentistry ◽  
Dental Tissue Engineering ◽  
Made In

Over the past 100 y, tremendous progress has been made in the fields of dental tissue engineering and regenerative dental medicine, collectively known as translational dentistry. Translational dentistry has benefited from the more mature field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine (TERM), established on the belief that biocompatible scaffolds, cells, and growth factors could be used to create functional, living replacement tissues and organs. TERM, created and pioneered by an interdisciplinary group of clinicians, biomedical engineers, and basic research scientists, works to create bioengineered replacement tissues that provide at least enough function for patients to survive until donor organs are available and, at best, fully functional replacement organs. Ultimately, the goal of both TERM and regenerative dentistry is to bring new and more effective therapies to the clinic to treat those in need. Very recently, the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research invested $24 million over a 3-y period to create dental oral and craniofacial translational resource centers to facilitate the development of more effective therapies to treat edentulism and other dental-related diseases over the next decade. This exciting era in regenerative dentistry, particularly for whole-tooth tissue engineering, builds on many key successes over the past 100 y that have contributed toward our current knowledge and understanding of signaling pathways directing natural tooth and dental tissue development—the foundation for current strategies to engineer functional, living replacement dental tissues and whole teeth. Here we use a historical perspective to present key findings and pivotal advances made in the field of translational dentistry over the past 100 y. We will first describe how this process has evolved over the past 100 y and then hypothesize on what to expect over the next century.

scholarly journals Unified speed estimation of various stabilities

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mu-Fa Chen
Keyword(s):  
Recent Progress ◽  
Main Topic ◽  
Speed Estimation ◽  
The Past ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Made In

AbstractThe main topic of this talk is the speed estimation of stability/instability. The word “various” comes with no surprising since there are a lot of different types of stability/instability and each of them has its own natural distance to measure. However, the adjective “unified” is very much unexpected. The talk surveys our recent progress on the topic, made in the past five years or so.

Recent progress on stability issues of organic–inorganic hybrid lead perovskite-based solar cells

RSC Advances ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (92) ◽  
pp. 89356-89366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Li ◽  
Peizhe Liao ◽  
Xuxia Shai ◽  
Wenchao Huang ◽  
Shaungshuang Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
Recent Progress ◽  
Perovskite Solar Cells ◽  
Inorganic Hybrid ◽  
The Past ◽  
Substantial Progress ◽  
Halide Perovskite ◽  
Stability Issues ◽  
Made In

Over the past few years, substantial progress has been made in research on organic–inorganic halide perovskite solar cells.

scholarly journals Optimizing First-Line Therapy for Follicular Lymphoma: Is It Time for Chemotherapy-Free Approaches?

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (11.5) ◽  
pp. 1414-1416
Author(s):  
Richard I. Fisher
Keyword(s):  
Follicular Lymphoma ◽  
Standard Of Care ◽  
Hematologic Malignancies ◽  
First Line ◽  
Current Standard ◽  
The Past ◽  
First Line Therapy ◽  
Free Treatment ◽  
Tremendous Progress ◽  
Made In

Over the past several decades, tremendous progress has been made in the treatment of follicular lymphoma. The addition of rituximab to chemotherapy led to significant improvements in survival in the 1990s. Current standard of care in advanced-stage, previously untreated follicular lymphoma is rituximab plus chemotherapy, sometimes followed by rituximab maintenance. Now, as more research is conducted in the field of chemotherapy-free treatment, Dr. Richard I. Fisher discussed the importance of carefully constructed phase II or III trials at the NCCN 2019 Annual Congress: Hematologic Malignancies. He maintained that a nonchemotherapy treatment regimen comprising rituximab + lenalidomide can be considered in carefully selected patients, and that it is currently the only chemotherapy-free treatment that should be recommended.

scholarly journals The Roles of Osteopontin in the Pathogenesis of West Nile Encephalitis

Vaccines ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 748
Author(s):  
Farzana Nazneen ◽  
Fengwei Bai
Keyword(s):  
Viral Encephalitis ◽  
Viral Infections ◽  
Inflammatory Diseases ◽  
Immune Functions ◽  
Biological Functions ◽  
West Nile ◽  
Multifunctional Protein ◽  
Physiological Conditions ◽  
Secreted Phosphoprotein 1 ◽  
Made In

Osteopontin (OPN), a multifunctional protein encoded by the secreted phosphoprotein-1 (Spp-1) gene in humans, plays important roles in a variety of physiological conditions, such as biomineralization, bone remodeling and immune functions. OPN also has significant roles in the pathogenesis of autoimmune, allergy and inflammatory diseases, as well as bacterial, fungal and viral infections. West Nile virus (WNV), a mosquito-transmitted flavivirus, is the leading agent for viral encephalitis in North America. Recent progress has been made in understanding both the biological functions of OPN and the pathogenesis of WNV. In this review article, we have summarized the current understanding of the biology of OPN and its vital roles in the pathogenesis of WNV encephalitis.

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