Immunology of Infectious Disease News Volume 5.09 | Mar 8 2017

TOP STORY

Administration of Nucleoside-Modified mRNA Encoding Broadly Neutralizing Antibody Protects Humanized Mice from HIV-1 Challenge

Investigators presented a safe and cost-effective platform for in vivo expression of therapeutic antibodies using nucleoside-modified mRNA. To demonstrate feasibility and protective efficacy, nucleoside-modified mRNAs encoding the light and heavy chains of the broadly neutralizing anti-HIV-1 antibody VRC01 were generated and encapsulated into lipid nanoparticles. [Nat Commun] Full Article | Press Release

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Macrophage Death following Influenza Vaccination Initiates the Inflammatory Response that Promotes Dendritic Cell Function in the Draining Lymph Node

Scientists examined the role of lymph node macrophages (LNMs) in the induction of the cytokine storm triggered by inactivated influenza virus vaccine. Following vaccination, LNMs undergo inflammasome-independent necrosis-like death that is reliant on MyD88 and Toll-like receptor 7 expression and releases pre-stored interleukin-1α. [Cell Rep] Full Article | Graphical Abstract

Ultrastructural Characterization of Zika Virus Replication Factories

Researchers used various imaging techniques to investigate the ultrastructural details of Zika virus (ZIKV) replication factories (RFs) and their relationship with host cell organelles. Analyses of human hepatic cells and neural progenitor cells infected with ZIKV revealed endoplasmic reticulum membrane invaginations containing pore-like openings toward the cytosol, reminiscent to RFs in Dengue virus-infected cells. [Cell Rep] Full Article | Graphical Abstract

Impact of Caspase-1/11, -3, -7, or IL-1β/IL-18 Deficiency on Rabies Virus-Induced Macrophage Cell Death and Onset of Disease

Scientists examined the type of cell death and the role of specific caspases in cell death and disease development upon infection with two laboratory strains of rabies virus. Infection of Mf4/4 macrophages with both strains led to caspase-1 activation and IL-1β and IL-18 production, as well as activation of caspases-3, -7, -8, and -9. [Cell Death Dis] Full Article

Novel Vaccine Potential of Rv3131, a DosR Regulon-Encoded Putative Nitroreductase, against Hyper-Virulent Mycobacterium tuberculosis Strain K

The authors selected Rv3131, a hypothetical nitroreductase, as a vaccine antigen and evaluated its vaccine efficacy against M. tuberculosis strain K (Mtb K). Mtb K exhibited stable and constitutive up-regulation of rv3131 relative to Mtb H37Rv under three different growth conditions including exponential growth in normal culture conditions, hypoxia, and inside macrophages. [Sci Rep] Full Article

Ebola Virus Infection Kinetics in Chimeric Mice Reveal a Key Role of T Cells as Barriers for Virus Dissemination

Researchers utilized chimeric mice with competent hematopoietic-driven immunity, to show that Ebola virus primarily infects CD11b⁺ dendritic cells (DCs) in non-lymphoid and lymphoid tissues, but spares the main cross-presenting CD103⁺ DC subset. [Sci Rep] Full Article

Cooperation of Gastric Mononuclear Phagocytes with Helicobacter pylori during Colonization

Scientists reported the induction of IL-10–driven regulatory responses mediated by CD11b⁺F4/80^hiCD64⁺CX₃CR1⁺ mononuclear phagocytes that contribute to maintaining high levels of H. pylori loads in the stomach by modulating effector T cell responses at the gastric mucosa. [J Immunol] Abstract

Single-Cell RNA-Seq and Computational Analysis Using Temporal Mixture Modeling Resolves T_H1/T_FH Fate Bifurcation in Malaria

By using single-cell transcriptomics and computational analysis with a temporal mixture of Gaussian processes model, termed GPfates, the authors reconstructed the developmental trajectories of T helper (T_H)1 and T follicular helper (T_FH) cells during blood-stage Plasmodium infection in mice. [Sci Immunol] Abstract | Press Release

HIV

Tim-3 Is a Marker of Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cell Dysfunction during HIV Infection and Is Associated with the Recruitment of IRF7 and p85 into Lysosomes and with the Submembrane Displacement of TLR9

Scientists identified elevated levels of T cell Ig and mucin-domain containing molecule-3 (Tim-3)–expressing plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) in the blood of HIV-infected donors. The frequency of Tim-3–expressing pDCs correlated inversely with CD4 T cell counts and positively with HIV viral loads. [J Immunol] Abstract

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Immunity to Uropathogens: The Emerging Roles of Inflammasomes

The authors discuss how an improved understanding of inflammasomes could provide novel approaches for the design of diagnostics and therapeutics for complicated urinary tract infections, enabling us to overcome the challenge of drug resistance. [Nat Rev Urol] Abstract

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Bioversys AG and Aptuit Announce Collaboration to Identify Novel Approaches to Treat Serious Infections from Gram-Negative Pathogens

Bioversys AG and Aptuit announced the start of a joint collaboration aimed at the identification and validation of novel targets and molecules for Gram-negative bacteria. Aptuit and BioVersys hope that innovative approaches can address antibiotic resistance in the treatment of serious infections. [Aptuit] Press Release

PolyPid Announces Receipt of Qualified Infectious Disease Product (QIDP) Designation from FDA for D-PLEX^™ in Post-Cardiac Surgery Sternal Infection

PolyPid Ltd. announced that the company’s lead product candidate, D-PLEX^™, a secured antibiotic drug reservoir that provides a safe and effective local anti-bacterial prevention and treatment measure during surgical procedures, has been designated as a QIDP by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA). [PolyPid Ltd.] Press Release

FDA Grants Orphan Drug Designation to CSRA’s DynPort Vaccine Company for Plague Vaccine

CSRA Inc. announced that a plague vaccine being developed by its subsidiary, DynPort Vaccine Company LLC., was granted Orphan Drug Designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The vaccine will be used for pre-exposure prophylaxis to combat infection with Yersinia pestis, the causative agent of plague. [CSRA] Press Release

NanoBio Receives SBIR Grant for Genital Herpes Vaccine

NanoBio Corporation announced that it has been awarded a two-year Phase II Small Business Research Innovation (SBIR) grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, for the development of an intranasal nanoemulsion adjuvanted vaccine for the prevention of genital herpes. [NanoBio Corporation (PR Newswire Association LLC.)] Press Release

Patchy Progress on Fixing Global Gender Disparities in Science

Although women are publishing more studies, being cited more often, and securing more coveted first-author positions than they were in the mid 1990s, overall progress towards gender parity in science varies widely by country and field. This is according to a massive report released on 8^th March that is the first to examine such a broad swath of disciplines and regions of the world over time. [Nature News] Editorial

Open-Data Contest Unearths Scientific Gems — and Controversy

When a prestigious medical journal challenged scientists to analyze data from a pivotal blood-pressure study in search of new findings, hundreds of researchers around the world rushed to sign up. The contest, sponsored by the New England Journal of Medicine, offered scientists a rare opportunity to access detailed trial data that otherwise might have remained proprietary for another year — if not indefinitely. But the competition, whose winners were announced on 7^th March, also illustrates the tension between speeding access to data and protecting the interests of those who labored to collect them. [Nature News] Editorial

Prominent British Geneticist Offers Defense in Long-Running Misconduct Investigation

A leading UK academic has spoken publicly for the first time about a byzantine saga involving allegations of research misconduct in papers that stemmed from his research group at University College London. Geneticist David Latchman told Nature that although he did not scrutinize some of the papers sufficiently to detect errors, he also did not produce or directly supervise any of the images at the heart of the allegations. [Nature News] Editorial

NEW 35^th Annual Meeting of the European Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases (ESPID 2017)
May 23-27, 2017
Madrid, Spain

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

NEW Lecturer – Infectious Diseases (Virology) (University of Glasgow)

NEW Postdoctoral Positions – HIV-1 Research (Aarhus University)

Research Technologist – Cell Separation & Immunology (STEMCELL Technologies, Inc.)

PhD Student Position – Infection and Aging Biology (Karolinska Institute)

Research Investigator – Immuno-Oncology (Bristol-Meyers Squibb)

Research Fellow – Immunology (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute)

Postdoctoral Fellow – Immunology (Otto-von-Guericke-Universitat Magdeburg)

PhD Opportunities – Infection Research (Helmholtz Association)

Postdoctoral Research Fellow – CAR T Cell Therapy for HIV Infection (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center)

Postdoctoral Research Fellow – Viral Infection Modeling (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center)

Faculty Position – Senior Immunologist (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center)

Postdoctoral Research Fellow – Quantitative Infectious Disease Methods (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center)

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