Protective Cellular Immunity Against Influenza Virus Induced by Plasmid Inoculation of Newborn Mice

Neonate organisms display an intrinsic disability to mount effective immune responses to infectious agents or conventional vaccines. Whereas low. doses of antigens trigger a suboptimal response, higher doses are frequently associated with tolerance induction. We investigated the ability of a plasmid-expressing nucleoprotein of influenza virus to prime a specific cellular immune response when administered to newborn mice. We found that persistent exposure to antigen following plasmid inoculation of neonates leads to a vigorous priming of specific CTLs rather than tolerance induction. The CTLs were cross-reactive against multiple strains of type A influenza viruses and produced IFNγ but no IL-4. The immunity triggered by plasmid inoculation of neonates was protective in terms of pulmonary virus clearance as well as survival rate following lethal challenge with influenza virus. Whereas the persistence of the plasmid at the site of injection was readily demonstrable in adult mice at 3 months after inoculation, mice immunized as newborns displayed no plasmid at 3 months and very little at 1 month after injection. Thus, DNA-based immunization of neonates may prove an effective and safe vaccination strategy for induction of cellular immunity against microbes that cause serious infectious diseases in the early period of life

Cancer vaccines at an inflexion point: what next?

With the approval of the first therapeutic cancer vaccines for veterinarian and human use, the field reached a significant milestone after a considerable interval of tumultuous research and development marked by numerous ups and downs. As the mechanism of action and clinical benefit afforded by this class of agents are starkly different from that of conventional or small targeted therapies for cancer, there are still numerous hurdles that need to be overcome to fully unleash their potential. These challenges and efforts are illustrated in a book just published on this subject, a non-exhaustive yet representative synopsis of the latest advances in cancer vaccine technologies in various stages of development. Major lessons resulting from clinical testing of cancer vaccines and other immune interventions, are being integrated in novel, cutting edge platform technologies that blur the distinction between passive and active immunotherapies as well as carry the promise of fundamentally changing and improving the management of patients with cancer

Density inhomogeneities in heavy ion collisions around the critical point

We study the hydrodynamical expansion of a hot and baryon-dense quark fluid coupled to classical real-time evolution of the long wavelength modes of the chiral field. Significant density inhomogeneities develop dynamically when the transition to the symmetry-broken state occurs. We find that the amplitude of the density inhomogeneities is larger for expansion trajectories crossing the line of first-order transitions than for crossovers, which could provide some information on the location of a critical point. A few possible experimental signatures for inhomogeneous decoupling surfaces are mentioned briefly.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in PL

Stem cells and cancer immunotherapy: Arrowhead’s 2nd annual cancer immunotherapy conference

Investigators from academia and industry gathered on April 4 and 5, 2013, in Washington DC at the Arrowhead’s 2nd Annual Cancer Immunotherapy Conference. Two complementary concepts were discussed: cancer “stem cells” as targets and therapeutic platforms based on stem cells

New Cancer Immunotherapy Agents in Development: a report from an associated program of the 31

This report is a summary of \u27New Cancer Immunotherapy Agents in Development\u27 program, which took place in association with the 31st Annual Meeting of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC), on November 9, 2016 in National Harbor, Maryland. Presenters gave brief overviews of emerging clinical and pre-clinical immune-based agents and combinations, before participating in an extended panel discussion with multidisciplinary leaders, including members of the FDA, leading academic institutions and industrial drug developers, to consider topics relevant to the future of cancer immunotherapy