Meeting Highlights | Therapeutics and Prevention
Nipah@20: Lessons Learned from Another Virus with Pandemic Potential
Nipah disease is listed as one of the WHO priority diseases that pose the greatest public health risk due to their epidemic potential. More than 200 experts from around the world convened in Singapore last year to mark the 20th anniversary of the first Nipah virus outbreaks in Malaysia and Singapore. Most of these experts are now involved in responding to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Here, members of the Organizing...
Raúl Gómez Román, Lin-Fa Wang, Benhur Lee, Kim Halpin, Emmie de Wit, Christopher C. Broder, Mahmudur Rahman, Paul Kristiansen, Melanie Saville
Minireview | Therapeutics and Prevention
COVID-19: Learning from Lessons To Guide Treatment and Prevention Interventions
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by the novel coronavirus severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and first emerged in December 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei province, China. Since then, the virus has rapidly spread to many countries. While the outbreak in China appears to be in decline, the disease has spread across the world, with a daily increase in the number of confirmed cases and infection-related deaths....
Chris R. Triggle, Devendra Bansal, Elmoubasher Abu Baker Abd Farag, Hong Ding, Ali A. Sultan
Research Article | Therapeutics and Prevention
The Diversity Outbred Mouse Population Is an Improved Animal Model of Vaccination against Tuberculosis That Reflects Heterogeneity of Protection
We vaccinated the Diversity Outbred (DO) population of mice with BCG, the only vaccine currently used to protect against tuberculosis, and then challenged them with M. tuberculosis by aerosol. We found that the BCG-vaccinated DO mouse population exhibited a wide range of outcomes, in which outcomes in individual mice ranged from minimal respiratory or systemic disease...
Sherry L. Kurtz, Amy P. Rossi, Gillian L. Beamer, Dan M. Gatti, Igor Kramnik, Karen L. Elkins
Research Article | Clinical Science and Epidemiology
Molecular Epidemiology of Noninvasive and Invasive Group A Streptococcal Infections in Cape Town
The development of a vaccine for group A streptococcus (GAS) is of paramount importance given that GAS infections cause more than 500,000 deaths annually across the world. This prospective passive surveillance laboratory study evaluated the potential coverage of the M protein-based vaccine currently under development. While a number of GAS strains isolated from this sub-Sahara African study were included in the current vaccine...
D. D. Barth, P. Naicker, K. Engel, B. Muhamed, W. Basera, B. M. Mayosi, J. B. Dale, M. E. Engel
Perspective | Therapeutics and Prevention
Glycoconjugates: What It Would Take To Master These Well-Known yet Little-Understood Immunogens for Vaccine Development
Glycoconjugate vaccines are a critical component of the medical arsenal against infectious diseases. This established field continues, however, to experience failures in the clinic. The lack of fundamental understanding of factors controlling clinical efficacy of glycoconjugate vaccines is discussed while key parameters demanding focused and collaborative research are identified.
Fikri Avci, Francesco Berti, Peter Dull, John Hennessey, Viliam Pavliak, A. Krishna Prasad, Willie Vann, Michael Wacker, Olivier Marcq
Editor's Pick Research Article | Host-Microbe Biology
Transcriptomic and Proteomic Approaches to Finding Novel Diagnostic and Immunogenic Candidates in Pneumocystis
The current report enhances our understanding of Pneumocystis biology in a number of ways. First, the current study provided a preliminary annotation of the Pneumocystis murina genome, addressing a long-standing issue in the field. Second, this study validated two novel transcripts enriched in the two predominant life forms of Pneumocystis. These...
Taylor Eddens, Waleed Elsegeiny, David Ricks, Meagan Goodwin, William T. Horne, Mingquan Zheng, Jay K. Kolls
Anti-Factor H Antibody Reactivity in Young Adults Vaccinated with a Meningococcal Serogroup B Vaccine Containing Factor H Binding Protein
Meningococci are bacteria that cause sepsis and meningitis. Meningococcal species are subdivided into serogroups on the basis of different sugar capsules. Vaccines that target serogroup A, C, Y, and W capsules are safe and highly effective. New serogroup B (MenB) vaccines target a bacterial protein that can bind to a blood protein called complement factor H (FH). While serogroup B vaccines appear to be safe and effective, there is a...
Kelsey Sharkey, Peter T. Beernink, Joanne M. Langley, Soren Gantt, Caroline Quach, Christina Dold, Qin Liu, Manuel Galvan, Dan M. Granoff
Assignment of Serotype-Specific IgG1, IgG2, and IgA Weight-Based Antibody Units to the Human Pneumococcal Standard Reference Serum, 007sp
A well-characterized antibody standard is an indispensable reagent for use in assays designed to measure antibodies with precision and where assays between laboratories need to be comparable. The human pneumococcal standard reference serum, lot 89SF, greatly facilitated the standardization of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay methodologies during a critical period when the first pneumococcal polysaccharide-conjugate vaccines were being...
Scott Jones, Kier Finnegan, Jae Hee Wee, Polly D'Argoeuves, Lucy Roalfe, Suzanne Byrne, Sarah Heffernan, Adam Hunt, Marina Johnson, Tessa Jones, Emma Pearce, Hayley Richardson, Vasili Thalasselis, David Goldblatt
Research Article | Synthetic Biology
Attenuation of a Pathogenic Mycoplasma Strain by Modification of the obg Gene by Using Synthetic Biology Approaches
Animal diseases due to mycoplasmas are a major cause of morbidity and mortality associated with economic losses for farmers all over the world. Currently used mycoplasma vaccines exhibit several drawbacks, including low efficacy, short time of protection, adverse reactions, and difficulty in differentiating infected from vaccinated animals. Therefore, there is a need for improved vaccines to control animal mycoplasmoses. Here, we used...
Carole Lartigue, Yanina Valverde Timana, Fabien Labroussaa, Elise Schieck, Anne Liljander, Flavio Sacchini, Horst Posthaus, Brigitte Batailler, Pascal Sirand-Pugnet, Sanjay Vashee, Joerg Jores, Alain Blanchard
Enhanced Immunogenicity and Protective Efficacy of a Campylobacter jejuni Conjugate Vaccine Coadministered with Liposomes Containing Monophosphoryl Lipid A and QS-21
Campylobacter jejuni is a leading cause of diarrheal disease worldwide, and currently no preventative interventions are available. C. jejuni is an invasive mucosal pathogen that has a variety of polysaccharide structures on its surface, including a capsule. In phase 1 studies, a...
Amritha Ramakrishnan, Nina M. Schumack, Christina L. Gariepy, Heather Eggleston, Gladys Nunez, Nereyda Espinoza, Monica Nieto, Rosa Castillo, Jesus Rojas, Andrea J. McCoy, Zoltan Beck, Gary R. Matyas, Carl R. Alving, Patricia Guerry, Frédéric Poly, Renee M. Laird