Protestant women in the late Soviet era: gender, authority, and dissent

At the peak of the anti-religious campaigns under Nikita Khrushchev, communist propaganda depicted women believers as either naïve dupes, tricked by the clergy, or as depraved fanatics; the Protestant “sektantka” (female sectarian) was a particularly prominent folk-devil. In fact, as this article shows, women’s position within Protestant communities was far more complex than either of these mythical figures would have one believe. The authors explore four important, but contested, female roles: women as leaders of worship, particularly in remote congregations where female believers vastly outnumbered their male counterparts; women as unofficial prophetesses, primarily within Pentecostal groups; women as mothers, replenishing congregations through high birth rates and commitment to their children’s religious upbringing; and women as political actors in the defence of religious rights. Using a wide range of sources, which include reports written by state officials, articles in the church journal, letters from church members to their ecclesiastical leaders in Moscow, samizdat texts, and oral history accounts, the authors probe women’s relationship with authority, in terms of both the authority of the (male) ministry within the church, and the authority of the Soviet state

Development of Robust Freeze-Drying Process for Long-Term Stability of rVSV-SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine

The thermostability of vaccines, particularly enveloped viral vectored vaccines, remains a challenge to their delivery wherever needed. The freeze-drying of viral vectored vaccines is a promising approach but remains challenging due to the water removal process from the outer and inner parts of the virus. In the case of enveloped viruses, freeze-drying induces increased stress on the envelope, which often leads to the inactivation of the virus. In this study, we designed a method to freeze-dry a recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) expressing the SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein. Since the envelope of VSV is composed of 50% lipids and 50% protein, the formulation study focused on both the protein and lipid portions of the vector. Formulations were prepared primarily using sucrose, trehalose, and sorbitol as cryoprotectants; mannitol as a lyoprotectant; and histidine as a buffer. Initially, the infectivity of rVSV-SARS-CoV-2 and the cake stability were investigated at different final moisture content levels. High recovery of the infectious viral titer (~0.5 to 1 log loss) was found at 3–6% moisture content, with no deterioration in the freeze-dried cakes. To further minimize infectious viral titer loss, the composition and concentration of the excipients were studied. An increase from 5 to 10% in both the cryoprotectants and lyoprotectant, together with the addition of 0.5% gelatin, resulted in the improved recovery of the infectious virus titer and stable cake formation. Moreover, the secondary drying temperature of the freeze-drying process showed a significant impact on the infectivity of rVSV-SARS-CoV-2. The infectivity of the vector declined drastically when the temperature was raised above 20 °C. Throughout a long-term stability study, formulations containing 10% sugar (sucrose/trehalose), 10% mannitol, 0.5% gelatin, and 10 mM histidine showed satisfactory stability for six months at 2–8 °C. The development of this freeze-drying process and the optimized formulation minimize the need for a costly cold chain distribution system

A pooled genome-wide screening strategy to identify and rank influenza host restriction factors in cell-based vaccine production platforms

AbstractCell-derived influenza vaccines provide better protection and a host of other advantages compared to the egg-derived vaccines that currently dominate the market, but their widespread use is hampered by a lack of high yield, low cost production platforms. Identification and knockout of innate immune and metabolic restriction factors within relevant host cell lines used to grow the virus could offer a means to substantially increase vaccine yield. In this paper, we describe and validate a novel genome-wide pooled CRISPR/Cas9 screening strategy that incorporates a reporter virus and a FACS selection step to identify and rank restriction factors in a given vaccine production cell line. Using the HEK-293SF cell line and A/PuertoRico/8/1934 H1N1 influenza as a model, we identify 64 putative influenza restriction factors to direct the creation of high yield knockout cell lines. In addition, gene ontology and protein complex enrichment analysis of this list of putative restriction factors offers broader insights into the primary host cell determinants of viral yield in cell-based vaccine production systems. Overall, this work will advance efforts to address the public health burden posed by influenza.</jats:p