Preclinical Immunological Evaluation of an Intradermally Administered Heterologous Vaccine Against SARS-CoV-2 Variants

The recent emergence of new variants in the COVID-19 pandemic has led to new requirements for vaccines, with a focus on the capacity of vaccines to elicit high levels of neutralizing antibodies with specific recognition of S antigen variants based on the characterized vaccines licensed for use. A new strategy involving a heterologous vaccine composed of one or two doses of inactivated vaccine and a boost with the S1 protein with mutations (K-S) administered via the intradermal route was designed in this work and was found to improve immune efficacy by increasing neutralizing antibody titers and promoting specific T cell responses against 5 variants of the RBD peptide. A viral challenge test with the B.1.617.2 (Delta) variant confirmed that the both schedules of “1+1” and “2+1” administration ensured a clinical protective effect against this strain. All of these results not only suggested the feasibility of our strategy for protecting against new variants but also provided a technical pathway to enhance the anamnestic immune response in the immunized population.

Protective Immunity Induced by TgMIC5 and TgMIC16 DNA Vaccines Against Toxoplasmosis

Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular parasite, which is responsible for a widely distributed zoonosis. Effective vaccines against toxoplasmosis are necessary to protect the public health. The aim of this study is to evaluate the immune efficacy of DNA vaccines encoding TgMIC5 and TgMIC16 genes against T. gondii infection. The recombinant plasmid pVAX-MIC5 and pVAX-MIC16 were constructed and injected intramuscularly in mice. The specific immune responses and protection against challenge with T. gondii RH tachyzoites were evaluated by measuring the cytokine levels, serum antibody concentrations, lymphocyte proliferation, lymphocyte populations, and the survival time. The protection against challenge with the T. gondii RH tchyzoites and PRU cysts was examined by evaluation of the reduction in the brain cyst burden. The results indicated that immunized mice showed significantly increased levels of IgG, IFN-γ, IL-2, IL-12p70, and IL-12p40 and percentages of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. Additionally, vaccination prolonged the mouse survival time and reduced brain cysts compared with controls. Mouse groups immunized with a two-gene cocktail of pVAX-MIC5 + pVAX-MIC16 were more protected than mouse groups immunized with a single gene of pVAX-MIC5 or pVAX-MIC16. These results demonstrate that TgMIC5 and TgMIC16 induce effective immunity against toxoplasmosis and may serve as a good vaccine candidate against T. gondii infection.

Cytotoxic T cells are able to efficiently eliminate cancer cells by additive cytotoxicity

Lethal hit delivery by cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) towards B lymphoma cells occurs as a binary, “yes/no” process. In non-hematologic solid tumors, however, CTL often fail to kill target cells during 1:1 conjugation. Here we describe a mechanism of “additive cytotoxicity” by which time-dependent integration of sublethal damage events, delivered by multiple CTL transiting between individual tumor cells, mediates effective elimination. Reversible sublethal damage includes perforin-dependent membrane pore formation, nuclear envelope rupture and DNA damage. Statistical modeling reveals that 3 serial hits delivered with decay intervals below 50 min discriminate between tumor cell death or survival after recovery. In live melanoma lesions in vivo, sublethal multi-hit delivery is most effective in interstitial tissue where high CTL densities and swarming support frequent serial CTL-tumor cell encounters. This identifies CTL-mediated cytotoxicity by multi-hit delivery as an incremental and tunable process, whereby accelerating damage magnitude and frequency may improve immune efficacy.

Genetic analysis of CPV vaccine strain NL-35-D and evaluation of induced neutralizing antibody against virulent wild-type CPV and FPV Shanghai isolates

Background Canine parvovirus (CPV) emerged in 1970s as a new causative disease of dogs worldwide. The virus was shown to be closely related, genetically and antigenically, to feline parvovirus (FPV) and to FPV-like parvoviruses from which were presumably originated by host species shift and subsequent rapid adaptation. CPV is the most important viral cause of enteritis and death in puppies, and vaccination is the most important and effective measure to prevent CPV infection. The live attenuated vaccine strain NL-35-D is widely used as a commercial vaccine in China and other countries, but its genome sequence has not been reported so far. Results We reported a near full length sequence of NL-35-D vaccine strain (Genbank: MW650831), and identified a CPV-SH2001 (Genbank: MW650830) and a FPV-SH2001 (Genbank: MW650831) isolates from the fecal samples of stray dogs and cats in Shanghai, respectively. Immunofluorescence assay revealed that the CPV and FPV isolates could be proliferated by F81 cells. we sequenced the full length genome of NL-35-D virus strain, phylogenetic analysis of full-length genome and VP2 gene in comparison with the CPV and FPV strains isolated worldwide. According to the genetic analysis of VP2 gene, the CPV-SH2001 and FPV-SH2001 isolates were clustering far from the NL-35-D. However, the results demonstrated that NL-35-D vaccine strain still shares part of neutralizing epitopes with CPV and FPV isolates. The neutralizing antibody serum test also suggested vaccine strain NL-35-D is still effective against the present field isolated CPV and FPV strains. Therefore, these shared antigenic epitopes may be critical to the immune efficacy of the vaccine and deserve further testing and validation. Conclusions Our results revealed that pups inoculated with CPV vaccine had significantly high neutralizing antibody titers against CPV and FPV virus strains. Pups vaccinated with CPV possess antibodies against heterologous viruses, the antibodies probably at levels still can provide complete or partial immunity in young pups.

Design of Hapten Synthesis and Antibody Characterization of G-group Aflatoxins

Food and feed contamination with Aflatoxins pose a serious threat to human health and animal husbandry development and has caused widespread concern, among them, G-group Aflatoxins as the main pollutant has attracted more and more attention. In order to establish a rapid, sensitive, specific and efficient immunoassay method for G-group aflatoxins, this study aimed to designed to synthesize 3 immunogens and coating antigens and identified by UV and SDS-PAGE. Then used to immunize Balb/c mice with prepared of three immunogen the titers were determined by indirect ELISA and the sensitivity was determined by competitive indirect ELISA (icELISA), the specificity was assessed by the cross-reaction test (CR). The results of UV and SDS-PAGE showed that the three immunogens and the corresponding coated antigens were successfully synthesized and the best one was SA method among three synthesis methods of G-group AF artificial antigen and its conjugation ratio of AFG1 to BSA was about 5.64∶1. The immune efficacy of SA method was the best, its AFG1 pAb had high titers of 1∶(6.4×103) by indirect ELISA, a good sensitivity with the 50 % inhibition concentration(IC50) of 13.6 μg/kg－1 to AFG1 by blocking ELISA and a high CR to AFG2 of 82.19 %, it showed high specificity for other aflatoxins. The experimental results not only obtained the ideal G group aflatoxin antibody, but also established a substance and technology foundation for G group aflatoxin immunization methods, and can be referenced in the similar tests.

KRAS-Mutant Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: An Emerging Promisingly Treatable Subgroup

Lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, can be classified into small cell lung cancer and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). NSCLC is the most common histological type, accounting for 85% of all lung cancers. Kirsten rat sarcoma viral oncogene (KRAS) mutations, common in NSCLC, are associated with poor prognosis, likely due to poor responses to most systemic therapies and lack of targeted drugs. The latest published clinical trial data on new small-molecule KRAS G12C inhibitors, AMG510 and MRTX849, indicate that these molecules may potentially help treat KRAS-mutant NSCLC. Simultaneously, within the immuno-therapeutic process, immune efficacy has been observed in those patients who have KRAS mutations. In this article, the pathogenesis, treatment status, progress of immunotherapy, and targeted therapy of KRAS-mutant NSCLC are reviewed.

Strategies for Immunomonitoring after Vaccination and during Infection

Immunomonitoring is the study of an individual’s immune responses over the course of vaccination or infection. In the infectious context, exploring the innate and adaptive immune responses will help to investigate their contribution to viral control or toxicity. After vaccination, immunomonitoring of the correlate(s) and surrogate(s) of protection is a major asset for measuring vaccine immune efficacy. Conventional immunomonitoring methods include antibody-based technologies that are easy to use. However, promising sensitive high-throughput technologies allowed the emergence of holistic approaches. This raises the question of data integration methods and tools. These approaches allow us to increase our knowledge on immune mechanisms as well as the identification of key effectors of the immune response. However, the depiction of relevant findings requires a well-rounded consideration beforehand about the hypotheses, conception, organization and objectives of the immunomonitoring. Therefore, well-standardized and comprehensive studies fuel insight to design more efficient, rationale-based vaccines and therapeutics to fight against infectious diseases. Hence, we will illustrate this review with examples of the immunomonitoring approaches used during vaccination and the COVID-19 pandemic.