Immunology of Infectious Disease News
Immunology of Infectious Disease News is an online resource dedicated to covering the latest research and developments in the field of infectious diseases.
HIV Immune Evasin Nef Enhances Allogeneic CAR T Cell Potency
[Nature] To devise a strategy to protect allogeneic CAR T cells from host immune cells, researchers turned to lymphotropic viruses that have evolved integrated mechanisms for the immune escape of virus-infected lymphocytes.
Shigella Infection Is Facilitated by Interaction of Human Enteric α-Defensin 5 with Colonic Epithelial Receptor P2Y11
[Nature Microbiology] Scientists showed that HD5 induced abundant filopodial extensions in epithelial cells that captured Shigella, a major human enteroinvasive pathogen that was able to exploit these filopodia for invasion, revealing a mechanism for HD5-augmented bacterial invasion.
A New Method for Detecting Mixed Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection and Reconstructing Constituent Strains Provides Insights into Transmission
[Genome Medicine] Scientists presented MixInfect2, a new tool to accurately detect mixed samples from Mycobacterium tuberculosis short-read whole genome sequence data.
Decreased SynMuv B Gene Activity in Response to Viral Infection Leads to Activation of the Antiviral RNAi Pathway in C. elegans
[PLOS Biology] Investigators showed that mRNAs highly induced in synMuv B mutants were congruent with those induced by Orsay RNA virus infection, suggesting that the enhanced RNAi of synMuv B mutants may also be triggered by down-regulation of synMuvB gene activity in an Orsay virus infection of wild type.
Diversifying T Cell Responses: Safeguarding Against Pandemic Influenza with Mosaic Nucleoprotein
[Journal of Virology] The authors hypothesized that diversifying T-cell responses, particularly targeting conserved viral proteins such as the influenza A virus (IAV) nucleoprotein, could protect against both epidemic and pandemic IAV strains.
Prolonged Exposure to Heat Enhances Mosquito Tolerance to Viral Infection
[Communications Biology] Investigators highlighted the importance of considering fluctuations in vector immunity in relation to the length of a thermal challenge to understand natural variation in vector response to viruses and frame realistic transmission models.
Differential B Cell-Mediated Immune Response during Plasmodium yoelii Infection in Mice
[Acta Tropica] Researchers investigated the modulation of different splenic subsets of B cells during Plasmodium yoelii infection. Balb/c mice infected with each Plasmodium yoelii XL and XNL parasite were used for phenotypic characterization of splenic B cell subsets through flow cytometry.
Plasma Proteomic Evidence for Increased β-Amyloid Pathology after SARS-CoV-2 Infection
[Nature Medicine] Researchers measured plasma biomarkers linked to Alzheimer’s disease pathology in the UK Biobank before and after serology-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections.
Induction of the Inflammasome by the SARS-CoV-2 Accessory Protein ORF9b, Abrogated by Small-Molecule ORF9b Homodimerization Inhibitors
[Journal of Medical Virology] Investigators showed that the SARS-CoV-2 accessory protein, ORF9b, but not other SARS-CoV-2 accessory proteins, strongly activated inflammasome-dependent caspase-1 in A549 lung carcinoma cells and THP-1 monocyte-macrophage cells.
Multicentre Case-Control Study on the Association Between COVID-19 Vaccines and Neurological Disorders (COVIVAX)
[Scientific Reports] The COVIVAX study assessed the association between COVID-19 vaccination and the risk of common neurological disorders in a multicenter case-control design.
Malaria: Factors Affecting Disease Severity, Immune Evasion Mechanisms, and Reversal of Immune Inhibition to Enhance Vaccine Efficacy
[PLOS Pathogens] The authors review the factors affecting the disease severity, the genetics of host–parasite interaction, immune evasion mechanisms, and approaches potentially to improve host immune response for vaccine development.
Pfizer’s BRAFTOVI® Combination Regimen Significantly Improved Progression-Free Survival and Overall Survival in Phase III BREAKWATER Trial
[Pfizer, Inc.] Pfizer, Inc. announced positive topline results from the progression-free survival analysis of the Phase III BREAKWATER study of BRAFTOVI® in combination with cetuximab and mFOLFOX6 in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer harboring a BRAF V600E mutation.
Immunology of Infectious Disease News was founded to keep the scientific community current with the latest developments in infectious disease research. We feature high-impact publications, news, jobs, and events focused on immune responses to and the development of treatments for infectious diseases such as COVID-19, HIV, hepatitis, tuberculosis, influenza, and malaria.