A novel therapeutic strategy of lipidated promiscuous peptide against Mycobacterium tuberculosis by eliciting Th1 and Th17 immunity of host

Regardless of the fact that potent drug-regimen is currently available, tuberculosis continues to kill 1.5 million people annually. Tuberculosis patients are not only inflicted by the trauma of disease but they also suffer from the harmful side-effects, immune suppression and drug resistance instigated by prolonged therapy. It is an exigency to introduce radical changes in the existing drug-regime and discover safer and better therapeutic measures. Hence, we designed a novel therapeutic strategy by reinforcing the efficacy of drugs to kill Mtb by concurrently boosting host immunity by L91. L91 is chimera of promiscuous epitope of Acr1 antigen of Mtb and TLR-2 agonist Pam2Cys. The adjunct therapy using drugs and L91 (D-L91) significantly declined the bacterial load in Mtb infected animals. The mechanism involved was through enhancement of IFN-γ+TNF-α+ polyfunctional Th1 cells and IL-17A+IFN-γ+ Th17 cells, enduring memory CD4 T cells and downregulation of PD-1. The down-regulation of PD-1 prevents CD4 T cells from undergoing exhaustion and improves their function against Mtb. Importantly, the immune response observed in animals could be replicated using T cells of tuberculosis patients on drug therapy. In future, D-L91 therapy can invigorate drugs potency to treat tuberculosis patients and reduce the dose and duration of drug-regime

Search for lepton-flavor-violating τ\tau decays into a lepton and a vector meson using the full Belle data sample

Charged-lepton-flavor-violation is predicted in several new physics scenarios. We update the analysis of $\tau$ lepton decays into a light charged lepton ($\ell$ = $e^{\pm}$ or $\mu^{\pm}$) and a vector meson ($V^0$ = $\rho^0$, $\phi$, $\omega$, $K^{\ast0}$, or $\overline{K}{}^{\ast0}$) using 980 fb$^{-1}$ of data collected with the Belle detector at the KEKB collider. No significant excess of such signal events is observed, and thus 90% credibility level upper limits are set on the $\tau \rightarrow \ell V^0$ branching fractions in the range of (1.7--$4.3) \times 10^{-8}$. These limits are improved by 30% on average from the previous results.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures; added one sentence in Acknowledgments; added a systematic uncertainty about the number of background estimation, and corrected some sentence

Measurement of the branching fraction of Ξc0→Λc+π−\Xi_{c}^{0}\to \Lambda_{c}^{+}\pi^{-} at Belle

Based on a data sample of 983 fb$^{-1}$ collected with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy $e^+e^-$ collider, we present the study of the heavy-flavor-conserving decay $\Xi_{c}^{0}\to \Lambda_{c}^{+}\pi^{-}$ with $\Lambda_{c}^{+}$ reconstructed via its $pK^{-} \pi^{+}$ decay mode. The branching fraction ratio $\mathcal{B}(\Xi_{c}^{0}\to \Lambda_{c}^{+}\pi^{-})/\mathcal{B}(\Xi_{c}^{0}\to \Xi^{-}\pi^{+})$ is measured to be $0.38 \pm 0.04 \pm 0.04$. Combing with the world average value of $\mathcal{B}(\Xi_{c}^{0}\to \Xi^{-}\pi^{+})$, the branching fraction $\mathcal{B}(\Xi_{c}^{0}\to \Lambda_{c}^{+}\pi^{-})$ is deduced to be $(0.54 \pm 0.05 \pm 0.05 \pm 0.12)\%$. Here, the uncertainties above are statistical, systematic, and from $\mathcal{B}(\Xi_c^{0} \to \Xi^{-}\pi^{+})$, respectively.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Measurement of Angular Coefficients of Bˉ→D∗ℓνˉℓ\bar{B} \to D^* \ell \bar{\nu}_\ell: Implications for ∣Vcb∣|V_{cb}| and Tests of Lepton Flavor Universality

We measure the complete set of angular coefficients $J_i$ for exclusive $\bar{B} \to D^* \ell \bar{\nu}_\ell$ decays ($\ell = e, \mu$). Our analysis uses the full $711\,\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ Belle data set with hadronic tag-side reconstruction. The results allow us to extract the form factors describing the $B \to D^*$ transition and the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix element $|V_{\rm cb}|$. Using recent lattice QCD calculations for the hadronic form factors, we find $|V_{\rm cb}| = (41.0 \pm 0.7) \times 10^3$ using the BGL parameterization, compatible with determinations from inclusive semileptonic decays. We search for lepton flavor universality violation as a function of the hadronic recoil parameter $w$, and investigate the differences of the electron and muon angular distributions. We find no deviation from Standard Model expectations

Search for X(3872)→π+π−π0X(3872)\to\pi^+\pi^-\pi^0 at Belle

We present a search for the decay $X(3872) \to \pi^+\pi^-\pi^0$ in the $(772\pm11)\times10^6$ $\Upsilon(4S)\to B \bar B$ data sample collected at the Belle detector, where the $X(3872)$ is produced in $B^{\pm}\to K^{\pm}X(3872)$ and $B^{0}\to K_{S}^0 X(3872)$ decays. We do not observe a signal, and set 90\% credible upper limits for two different models of the decay processes: if the decay products are distributed uniformly in phase space, $\mathcal{B}(X(3872) \to \pi^+\pi^-\pi^0) < 1.3\%$; if $M(\pi^+\pi^-)$ is concentrated near the mass of the $D^0 \bar D^0$ pair in the process $X(3872)\to D^0\bar{D}^{*0}+c.c.\to D^0 \bar D^{0}\pi^0\to\pi^+ \pi^- \pi^0$, $\mathcal{B}(X(3872) \to \pi^+\pi^-\pi^0) < 1.2\times10^{-3}$

Search for Bs0→ℓ∓τ±B{}^0_s \rightarrow \ell^{\mp} \tau^{\pm} with the Semi-leptonic Tagging Method at Belle

We present a search for the lepton-flavor-violating decays $B{}^0_s \rightarrow \ell^{\mp}\tau^{\pm}$, where $\ell = e, \mu$, using the full data sample of $121~\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ collected at the $\Upsilon(5S)$ resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy $e^+e^-$ collider. We use $B{}^0_s \overline{B}{}^0_s$ events in which one $B{}^0_s$ meson is reconstructed in a semileptonic decay mode and the other in the signal mode. We find no evidence for $B{}^0_s \rightarrow \ell^{\mp}\tau^{\pm}$ decays and set upper limits on their branching fractions at $90\%$ confidence level as $\mathcal{B}(B{}^0_s \rightarrow e^{\mp}\tau^{\pm}) < 14.1 \times 10^{-4}$ and $\mathcal{B}(B{}^0_s \rightarrow \mu^{\mp}\tau^{\pm}) < 7.3 \times 10^{-4}$. Our result represents the first upper limit on the $B{}^0_s \rightarrow e^{\mp}\tau^{\pm}$ decay rate.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, Submitted to JHE

Two-particle angular correlations in e+e−e^+ e^- collisions to hadronic final states in two reference coordinates at Belle

We present the analysis of two-particle angular correlations using coordinate systems defined with the conventional beam axis and the event thrust axis, and propose the latter to be a useful representation for the correlation structure interpretation in the $e^+ e^-$ collision system. The $e^+ e^-$ collisions to hadronic final states at center-of-mass energies of $\sqrt{s} = 10.52$ GeV and $10.58$ GeV are recorded by the Belle detector at KEKB. In this paper, results on the first dataset are supplementary to the previous Belle publication arXiv:2201.01694 while the latter one is the first two-particle correlation measurement at a collision energy on the $\Upsilon(4S)$ resonance and sensitive to its decay products. Measurements are reported as a function of the charged-particle multiplicity. Finally, a qualitative understanding of the correlation structure is discussed using a combination of Monte Carlo simulations and experimental data.Comment: Submitted to JHEP. 32 pages, 14 figure

Search for the lepton flavour violating decays B+→K+τ±ℓ∓B^{+} \to K^{+} \tau^\pm \ell^\mp (ℓ=e,μ\ell = e, \mu) at Belle

We present a search for the lepton-flavour-violating decays $B^+ \to K^+ \tau^\pm \ell^\mp$, with $\ell = (e, \mu)$, using the full data sample of $772 \times 10^6$ $B\overline{B}$ pairs recorded by the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy $e^+ e^-$ collider. We use events in which one $B$ meson is fully reconstructed in a hadronic decay mode. We find no evidence for $B^\pm \to K^\pm \tau \ell$ decays and set upper limits on their branching fractions at the 90% confidence level in the $(1$-$3) \times 10^{-5}$ range. The obtained limits are the world's best results.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figure

Search for charged-lepton flavor violation in Υ(2S)→ℓ∓τ±\Upsilon(2S) \to \ell^\mp\tau^\pm (ℓ=e,μ\ell=e,\mu) decays at Belle

We report a search for the charged-lepton flavor violation in $\Upsilon(2S) \to \ell^\mp\tau^\pm$ ($\ell=e,\mu$) decays using a $25~\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ $\Upsilon(2S)$ sample collected by the Belle detector at the KEKB $e^{+}e^{-}$ asymmetric-energy collider. We find no evidence for a signal and set upper limits on the branching fractions ($\mathcal{B}$) at 90$\%$ confidence level. We obtain the most stringent upper limits: $\mathcal{B}(\Upsilon(2S) \to \mu^{\mp}\tau^{\pm}) < 0.26 \times 10^{-6}$ and $\mathcal{B}(\Upsilon(2S) \to e^{\mp}\tau^{\pm}) < 1.02 \times 10^{-6}$.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, Submitted to JHE