Immunology of Infectious Disease News Volume 6.24 | Jun 20 2018

TOP STORY

Fetal T Cells Are First Responders to Infection in Adults

Researchers have discovered there is a division of labor among immune cells that fight invading pathogens in the body. The study finds for the first time that fetal immune cells are present in adults and have specialized roles during infection. In fact, the first immune cells made in early life are fast-acting first responders to microbes in adulthood. [Press release from Cornell University discussing online prepublication in Cell] Press Release | Abstract | Graphical Abstract

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A Live Vaccine Rapidly Protects against Cholera in an Infant Rabbit Model

The authors created HaitiV, a live attenuated cholera vaccine candidate, by deleting diarrheagenic factors from a recent clinical isolate of Vibrio cholerae and incorporating safeguards against vaccine reversion. They demonstrated that administration of HaitiV 24 hours before lethal challenge with wild-type V. cholerae reduced intestinal colonization by the wild-type strain, slowed disease progression, and reduced mortality in an infant rabbit model of cholera. [Sci Transl Med] Full Article | Press Release

Altered Immune Cell Follicular Dynamics in HIV Infection following Influenza Vaccination

Prior to vaccination, compared with those in healthy controls, HIV⁺ lymph nodes (LNs) exhibited an altered follicular architecture, but harbored higher numbers of T follicular helper (Tfh) cells and increased IgG⁺ follicular memory B cells. Postvaccination LN samples in HIV⁺ participants had significantly reduced Tfh cell numbers compared with prevaccination samples, without evidence for peripheral Tfh cell reduction. [J Clin Invest] Full Article

Intestinal Damage Precedes Mucosal Immune Dysfunction in SIV Infection

Researchers longitudinally evaluated the kinetics of mucosal and systemic T-cell activation, microbial translocation, and Th17 cell and neutrophil frequencies following intrarectal SIV infection of rhesus macaques. [Mucosal Immunol] Abstract

A Recombinant Herpesviral Vector Containing a Near-Full-Length SIVmac239 Genome Produces SIV Particles and Elicits Immune Responses to All Nine SIV Gene Products

Scientists describe the construction and characterization of recombinant, replication-competent forms of rhesus monkey rhadinovirus, a gamma-2 herpesvirus, containing a near-full-length genome of the simian immunodeficiency virus. [PLoS Pathog] Full Article

Activation of Peripheral T Follicular Helper Cells during Acute Dengue Virus Infection

Researchers found significant expansion and activation of T_FH in the circulation (pT_FH) subsets during acute infection with the highest frequencies of activated pT_FH detected during the critical phase of illness. Numbers of activated pT_FH were higher in patients with secondary compared to primary infections, and in patients with more severe disease. [J Infect Dis] Abstract

KLRD1-Expressing Natural Killer Cells Predict Influenza Susceptibility

The authors identified KLRD1-expressing natural killer cells as a potential biomarker for influenza susceptibility. Expression of KLRD1 was inversely correlated with symptom severity. [Genome Med] Full Article | Press Release

Increased Degranulation of Immune Cells Is Associated with Higher Cervical Viral Load in HIV Infected Women

Investigators quantified and assessed the activation of the effector immune cells at the cervicovaginal mucosa of HIV infected women with different disease outcomes: non-progressive HIV disease and chronic HIV-infected and their relationship with cervical viral shedding. [AIDS] Abstract

Design and Immune Characterization of a Novel Neisseria gonorrhoeae DNA Vaccine Using Bacterial Ghosts As Vector and Adjuvant

Scientists designed a novel Neisseria gonorrhoeae DNA vaccine delivered by bacterial ghosts and characterized its immune responses in vitro and in vivo. [Vaccine] Abstract

Designing B- and T-Cell Multi-Epitope Based Subunit Vaccine Using Immunoinformatics Approach to Control Zika Virus Infection

The designed subunit vaccine consisted of cytotoxic T‐lymphocyte and helper T‐lymphocyte epitopes accompanied by suitable adjuvant and linkers. The presence of humoral immune response specific B‐cell epitopes was also confirmed by B‐cell epitope mapping among vaccine protein. [J Cell Biochem] Abstract

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Zika Virus Vaccines

The authors discuss recent preclinical studies and lessons learned from first-in-human clinical trials with Zika virus vaccines. [Nat Rev Microbiol] Abstract

Effects of Type I Interferons in Malaria

Researchers focus on the protozoan parasitic disease, malaria, and examine the effects of type I IFN-signaling during Plasmodium infection of humans and experimental mice. [Immunology] Abstract | Full Article

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Indiana’s Top Research Institutions Receive $33 Million to Improve Health Statewide

Indiana’s top research universities have been awarded more than $33 million to improve the health of people in the state. The grant is their third five-year Clinical and Translational Science Award from the National Institutes of Health. [Purdue University] Press Release

Michelson Prize Awards $450,000 to Young Scientists Advancing Immunology and Vaccine Research

The Michelson Medical Research Foundation and the Human Vaccines Project announced the cutting edge researchers under the age of 35 that were selected as the award’s first recipients from a global competition that included over a hundred applications spanning 12 countries. Each of the three recipients will be awarded a $150,000 Prize to fund specific aspects of their research. [Human Vaccines Project (PR Newswire Association LLC)] Press Release

Early-Stage Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) Vaccine Trial Begins

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, has launched a clinical trial of an investigational vaccine designed to protect against RSV. The Phase I study will enroll a small group of healthy adult volunteers to examine the safety of an experimental intranasal vaccine and its ability to induce an immune response. [The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases] Press Release

In-Cell-Art, the Institut Pasteur and Bionet-Asia Announce the Collaborative Development of a Dengue Vaccine Candidate Successful in Preclinical Study

In-Cell-Art, BioNet-Asia, and the research team led by Dr. Anavaj Sakuntabhai at the Functional Genetics of Infectious Diseases Unit, Institut Pasteur Paris France, announced the promising development of Nanotaxi^® formulated DNA vaccine to induce strong immune response against dengue virus, after successful preclinical study. [Institut Pasteur] Press Release

Hundreds of U.S. Scientists Urge More Transparency in Animal Research

Breaking with a history of reticence, nearly 600 scientists, students, and lab animal workers published a letter in USA Today that calls on U.S. research institutions to “embrace openness” about their animal research. [ScienceInsider] Editorial

U.S. Legislators Back Larger Facilities Budget for NSF

The National Science Foundation (NSF) in Alexandria, Virginia, is in line for a budget increase of 4% to 5% next year. That assessment is based on bills approved recently by the spending committees in both chambers of Congress. Lawmakers have also signaled support for growing the account that NSF uses to build major new scientific facilities. [ScienceInsider] Editorial

Why the Medical Research Grant System Could Be Costing Us Great Ideas

The medical research grant system in the United States, run through the National Institutes of Health, is intended to fund work that spurs innovation and fosters research careers. In many ways, it may be failing. [The New York Times] Editorial

NEW Keystone Symposia: Myeloid Cells
February 24-28, 2019
Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States

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NEW Postdoctoral Research Fellows and PhD Positions – HIV Immunology (Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre)

NEW Postdoctoral Fellow – Monoclonal Antibody and Viral Vaccine (SRI Employment)

NEW Faculty Position – Department of Microbiology & Immunology and Center for Vaccine Development (University of Maryland School of Medicine)

Research Technologist – Cell Separation (STEMCELL Technologies Inc.)

PhD Scholarships – Systems Biology in Immunity and Infectious Diseases (Università degli Studi di Perugia)

Chair – Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Tropical Medicine (The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences)

Chief Executive Officer – Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization)

Assistant Professor – Microbial Pathogenesis (University of Maryland School of Dentistry)

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

Faculty Positions – Infectious Disease Research (Institut Pasteur of Shanghai)

Postdoctoral Research Fellow – B Cell Immunology and Vaccines (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center)

Postdoctoral Training Opportunity – Infection and Immunity (Institut Pasteur of Shanghai – Chinese Academy of Sciences)

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