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.

Impact of a TLR9 Agonist and Broadly Neutralizing Antibodies on HIV-1 Persistence: The Randomized Phase IIa Titan Trial

September 19, 2023

[Nature Medicine] In this Phase IIa, placebo-controlled, double-blinded trial, 43 people with HIV-1 on antiretroviral therapy were randomized to placebo/placebo, lefitolimod/placebo, placebo/broadly neutralizing anti-HIV-1 antibodies (bNAbs) or lefitolimod/bNAb.

Association of Vaccine-Specific Regulatory T Cells with Reduced Antibody Response to Repeated Influenza Vaccination

September 19, 2023

[European Journal Of Immunology] Investigators explored the role of vaccine antigen-specific regulatory T (Treg) cells in antibody response to repeated annual influenza vaccination. They analyzed pre- and post-vaccination hemagglutination inhibition titers, seroconversion rates, seroprotection rates, vaccine antigen hemagglutinin-specific Treg cells, and conventional T cells.

Impact of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Glycolipids on the CD4+ T Cell–Macrophage Immunological Synapse

September 19, 2023

[Journal Of Immunology] Scientists demonstrated that mycobacterial cell-wall glycolipids such as ManLAM could traffic from infected macrophages to disrupt productive immunological synapse formation and inhibit CD4+ T cell activation, contributing to immune evasion by M. tuberculosis.

Salmonella Delivers H9N2 Influenza Virus Antigens via a Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic Dual-Expression Vector and Elicits Bivalent Protection Against Avian Influenza and Fowl Typhoid

September 19, 2023

[Developmental And Comparative Immunology] Researchers used a detoxified Salmonella Gallinarum (SG) strain to deliver a dual prokaryotic and eukaryotic expression vector, pJHL270 that expressed recombinant H9N2 antigens in both Salmonella and host cells. They evaluated the H9N2 antigen and SG-specific humoral and cellular immune responses in vitro following immunization.

Broadly Neutralizing Antibodies Derived from the Earliest COVID-19 Convalescents Protect Mice from SARS-CoV-2 Variants Challenge

September 19, 2023

[Signal Transduction And Targeted Therapy] Investigators developed six human monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) from two elite convalescents in Wuhan and showed that these mAbs recognize diverse epitopes on the receptor binding domain and can inhibit the infection of SARS-CoV-2 original strain and variants.

Pharmacological Inhibition of TBK1/IKKε Blunts Immunopathology in a Murine Model of SARS-CoV-2 Infection

September 19, 2023

[Nature Communications] Researchers found that the small molecule idronoxil inhibits TANK-binding kinase 1/IκB kinase-ε (TBK1/IKKε) signaling through destabilization of TBK1/IKKε protein complexes.

Host Heparan Sulfate Promotes ACE2 Super-Cluster Assembly and Enhances SARS-CoV-2-Associated Syncytium Formation

September 19, 2023

[Nature Communications] Scientists showed that heparan sulfate binds spikes and promotes spike-induced ACE2 clustering, forming synapse-like cell-cell contacts that facilitate fusion pore formation between ACE2-expressing and spike-transfected human cells.

Baseline Immune States (BIS) Associated with Vaccine Responsiveness and Factors That Shape the BIS

September 19, 2023

[Seminars In Immunology] The authors review clinical factors that shape the BIS, and the characteristics of the BIS associated with responsiveness to frequently studied vaccines. Finally, they discuss potential strategies to enhance vaccine responsiveness in high-risk groups, focusing specifically on older adults.

SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies Recognize 23 Distinct Epitopic Sites on the Receptor Binding Domain

September 19, 2023

[Communications Biology] To gain insight into the immunogenic characteristics of epitopic sites, researchers systematically investigated the structures of 340 Abs and 83 nanobodies complexed with the Receptor Binding Domain of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.

Computational Redesign of Beta-27 Fab with Substantially Better Predicted Binding Affinity to the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant than Human ACE2 Receptor

September 19, 2023

[Scientific Reports] Investigators employed computational protein design and molecular dynamics to investigate and enhance the binding affinity of Beta-27 Fab to SARS-CoV-2-RBD Omicron variant.

CDC Taps Ut for National Disease Outbreak Response Network

September 19, 2023

[UT News] The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) chose the researchers to work with public health agencies in Texas and Massachusetts, as well as with epidemiologists nationwide, through the CDC’s Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics, a major new effort that grew out of the needs and lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Postdoctoral Scholar Tulika Singh Receives Prestigious Hanna Gray Fellowship

September 19, 2023

[Berkeley Public Health] The Howard Hughes Medical Institute announced the selection of the 2023 Hanna Gray Fellows, a cohort of 25 early career scientists, including Dr. Tulika Singh who wants to uncover the immune pathways that remember and reactivate broadly neutralizing antibodies.

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.