Immune Regulation News Volume 3.07 | Feb 25 2011

Yerkes Researcher Finds Virus-Mimicking Nanoparticles Can Stimulate Long Lasting Immunity
Scientists have designed tiny nanoparticles that resemble viruses in size and immunological composition and that induce lifelong immunity in mice. [Press release from Yerkes National Primate Research Center discussing online prepublication in Nature]

 Cell Therapy News is now on Facebook. Join us!

 Follow us on Twitter! @Immune_News

Interested in recruiting talented individuals? Post your career opportunities in Immune Regulation News at no cost. Contact us at  info@connexoncreative.com

Nano-Sized Vaccines: New MIT Nanoparticles Could Lead to Powerful Vaccines for HIV and Other Diseases
MIT engineers have designed a new type of nanoparticle that could safely and effectively deliver vaccines for diseases such as HIV and malaria. [Press release from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) discussing online prepublication in Nature Materials]

Scientists Bioengineer a Protein to Fight Leukemia
Scientists have identified a protein called CD19-ligand (CD19-L) located on the surface of certain white blood cells that facilitates the recognition and destruction of leukemia cells by the immune system. [Press release from Children’s Hospital Los Angeles discussing online prepublication in the British Journal of Haematology]

Cytheris Announces Publication of Preclinical Study in Cell Showing That Interleukin-7 Engages Multiple Mechanisms To Overcome Chronic Viral Infection and Limit Organ Pathology
The study provides insights into the inhibitory pathways that function to impede immune responses in chronic viral infections while elucidating the attributes of IL-7, which have profound implications for its use as a therapeutic in the treatment of viral diseases such as HIV and hepatitis. [Press release from Cytheris discussing online prepublication in Cell]

Mutated Immune Gene Increases TB Risk for African Americans
A mutated immune system gene increases the risk of developing tuberculosis in African Americans who carry the TB bacteria. Scientists found that the African Americans with tuberculosis were more likely to carry a specific mutation in the IRGM1 gene. [Press release from the Baylor College of Medicine discussing online prepublication in PLoS ONE]

Entire T-Cell Receptor Repertoire Sequenced Revealing Extensive and Unshared Diversity
T-cell receptor diversity in blood samples from healthy individuals has been extensively cataloged for the first time, setting the stage for a better understanding of infectious disease, cancer, and immune system disorders. [Press release from ScienceDaily discussing online prepublication in Genome Research]

Programming the Magnitude and Persistence of Antibody Responses with Innate Immunity
Here researchers demonstrate that immunization of mice with synthetic nanoparticles containing antigens plus ligands that signal through Toll-like receptor (TLR) 4 and TLR7 induces synergistic increases in antigen-specific, neutralizing antibodies compared to immunization with nanoparticles containing antigens plus a single TLR ligand. [Nature]

IL-7 Engages Multiple Mechanisms to Overcome Chronic Viral Infection and Limit Organ Pathology
Mice infected with LCMV clone-13 have persistent high-level viremia and a dysfunctional immune response. Interleukin-7, a cytokine that is critical for immune development and homeostasis, was used here to promote immunity toward clone-13, enabling elucidation of the inhibitory pathways underlying impaired antiviral immune response. [Cell]

Chronic Mucocutaneous Candidiasis in Humans with Inborn Errors of Interleukin-17 Immunity
Researchers report two genetic etiologies of Chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis disease: autosomal recessive deficiency in the cytokine receptor, interleukin-17 receptor A (IL-17RA), and autosomal dominant deficiency of the cytokine IL-17F. [Science]

Interbilayer-Crosslinked Multilamellar Vesicles as Synthetic Vaccines for Potent Humoral and Cellular Immune Responses
Here, researchers describe interbilayer-crosslinked multilamellar vesicles formed by crosslinking headgroups of adjacent lipid bilayers within multilamellar vesicles. [Nat Mater]

ROR(gamma)t+ Innate Lymphoid Cells Regulate Intestinal Homeostasis by Integrating Negative Signals from the Symbiotic Microbiota
Here researchers show that in contrast to TH17 cells, both types of ROR(gamma)t+ innate lymphoid cells constitutively produced most of the intestinal IL-22 and that the symbiotic microbiota repressed this function through epithelial expression of IL-25. [Nat Immunol]

Selective Utilization of Toll-like Receptor and MyD88 Signaling in B Cells for Enhancement of the Antiviral Germinal Center Response
The contribution of Toll-like receptor (TLR) signaling to T cell-dependent antibody responses was assessed by using mice lacking the TLR signaling adaptor MyD88 in individual cell types. [Immunity]

Exhaustive T-Cell Repertoire Sequencing of Human Peripheral Blood Samples Reveals Signatures of Antigen Selection and a Directly Measured Repertoire Size of at Least 1 Million Clonotypes
From the error filtered data, researchers obtained 1,061,522 distinct TCRB nucleotide sequences. This figure establishes a new, directly measured lower limit on individual T-cell repertoire size and provides a useful reference set of sequences for repertoire analysis. [Genome Res]

Therapeutical Targeting of Nucleic Acid-Sensing Toll-Like Receptors Prevents Experimental Cerebral Malaria
Researchers provide evidence that supports the involvement of nucleic acid-sensing Toll-like receptors in malaria pathogenesis and that interference with the activation of these receptors is a promising strategy to prevent deleterious inflammatory responses that mediate pathogenesis and severity of malaria. [Proc Natl Acad Sci USA]

Recombinant Human CD19-Ligand Protein as a Potent Anti-Leukemic Agent
Researchers report the cloning and characterization of a novel 54-kDa high-mobility group-box protein as the ligand for the human pan-B cell co-receptor CD19, which interacts with the extracellular domain of CD19 in trans. [Br J Haematol]

Polymorphic Allele of Human IRGM1 Is Associated with Susceptibility to Tuberculosis in African Americans
An ancestral polymorphic allele of the human autophagy-related gene IRGM1 is associated with altered gene expression and a genetic risk for Crohn’s Disease (CD). The finding suggests that this CD-related IRGM1 polymorphic allele is also associated with human susceptibility to TB disease among African Americans. [PLoS ONE]

Transgene Announces the Termination by Roche of the License Agreement on TG4001/RG3484 for the Treatment of Diseases Caused by the Human Papilloma Virus (“HPV”)
Transgene announces the termination by Roche of the 2007 agreement under which Transgene granted Roche exclusive global development and commercialization rights to TG4001/RG3484, a therapeutic vaccine candidate to treat notably high grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) lesions (CIN2/3) caused by Human Papilloma Virus infection. [Transgene Press Release]

Regulatory Scientific Advice on CVac Phase III Trial
Australian health care company Prima BioMed Ltd announced that there has been an agreement for strategy and design of the Phase III clinical registration trial for the CVac(TM) immunotherapy therapeutic ovarian cancer vaccine. [Prima BioMed Ltd. Press Release]

GeoVax Announces Publication of Phase 1 Clinical Trial in The Journal of Infectious Diseases
GeoVax Labs, Inc. announced the publication of the results of Phase 1 clinical trial testing of its HIV/AIDS vaccine products. The article, titled “Phase 1 Safety and Immunogenicity Testing of DNA and Recombinant Modified Vaccinia Ankara Vaccines Expressing HIV-1 Virus-like Particles,” will appear in the March 1 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases. [PR Newswire]

National Institutes of Health (United States)

Food and Drug Administration (United States)

Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (United States)

European Medicines Agency (European Union)

Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (United Kingdom)

Therapeutic Goods Administration (Australia)

Visit our events page to see a complete list of events in the immune regulation community.

Lab Technologist – Human Embryonic and Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (STEMCELL Technologies)

Assistant Professor (University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Center for Cellular and Molecular Engineering)

Scientist – Pathology (Immunology) (Genentech)

Research Associate (The University of Manchester)

Recruit Top Talent
Reach more than 11,000 potential candidates by posting your organization’s career opportunities with the Connexon Creative Job Board at no cost.

Visit here to post your career opportunities.

Have we missed an important article or publication in Immune Regulation News? Click here to submit!

Comments or Suggestions? Email info@connexoncreative.com with your feedback.