In-medium pseudoscalar D/BD/B mesons and charmonium decay width

Using QCD sum rules and chiral SU(3) model, we investigate the effect of temperature, density, strangeness fraction and isospin asymmetric parameter on the shift in masses and decay constants of the pseudoscalar $D$ and $B$ meson in hadronic medium, which consist of nucleons and hyperons. The in-medium properties of $D$ and $B$ mesons within QCD sum rule approach depend upon the quark and gluon condensates. In chiral SU(3) model, quark and gluon condensates are introduced through the explicit symmetry breaking term and the trace anomaly property of the QCD, respectively and are written in terms of scalar fields $\sigma$, $\zeta$, $\delta$ and $\chi$. Hence, through medium modification of $\sigma$, $\zeta$, $\delta$ and $\chi$ fields, we obtain the medium modified masses and decay constants of $D$ and $B$ mesons. As an application, using $^3 P_0$ model, we calculate the in-medium decay width of the higher charmonium states $\psi(3686)$, $\psi(3770)$ and $\chi(3556)$ to the $D \bar{D}$ pairs, considering the in-medium mass of $D$ mesons. These results may be important to understand the possible outcomes of high energy physics experiments, e.g., CBM and PANDA at GSI, Germany.Comment: 31 pages and 7 figure

TCR-Engineered, Customized, Antitumor T Cells for Cancer Immunotherapy: Advantages and Limitations

The clinical outcome of the traditional adoptive cancer immunotherapy approaches involving the administration of donor-derived immune effectors, expanded ex vivo, has not met expectations. This could be attributed, in part, to the lack of sufficient high-avidity antitumor T-cell precursors in most cancer patients, poor immunogenicity of cancer cells, and the technological limitations to generate a sufficiently large number of tumor antigen-specific T cells. In addition, the host immune regulatory mechanisms and immune homeostasis mechanisms, such as activation-induced cell death (AICD), could further limit the clinical efficacy of the adoptively administered antitumor T cells. Since generation of a sufficiently large number of potent antitumor immune effectors for adoptive administration is critical for the clinical success of this approach, recent advances towards generating customized donor-specific antitumor-effector T cells by engrafting human peripheral blood-derived T cells with a tumor-associated antigen-specific transgenic T-cell receptor (TCR) are quite interesting. This manuscript provides a brief overview of the TCR engineering-based cancer immunotherapy approach, its advantages, and the current limitations

Heavy vector and axial-vector DD mesons in hot magnetized asymmetric nuclear matter

We observed the impact of finite magnetic field on the in-medium mass and decay constant of isospin averaged vector $D^*(D^{*^+},D^{*^0})$ and axial-vector $D_1(D^+_1, D^0_1)$ mesons. The quark and gluon condensates of the nuclear medium at finite magnetic field, temperature, isospin asymmetry, and density have been obtained by the meson exchange scalar fields within the chiral SU(3) model. The medium attributes modify the scalar and vector density of nuclear medium and this variation reflects in the in-medium mass and decay constant of spin 1 $D$ mesons. We calculate these observables by comparing the Operator Product Expansion (OPE) and the phenomenological side in the QCD Sum Rules. In the results, we observed a positive mass shift for charged vector and axial-vector $D$ mesons with respect to magnetic field. For neutral vector (axial-vector) $D$ mesons we observed negative (positive) mass shift as a function of magnetic field. In the application part, we calculate the in-medium partial decay width of the process $D^*_s$(2715/2860) $\rightarrow$ $D^* K$ by using $^3P_0$ model. The in-medium effects are incorporated through the in-medium masses of $D^*$ and $K$ mesons.Comment: 36 Pages, 11 figure

An Update on JE Vaccine Development and Use

Japanese encephalitis (JE) is an emerging and re- emerging arboviral infection of global significance. Its causative agent Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is the leading cause of viral encephalitis in Asia, Southeast Asia and Pacific. Nearly 3 billion people living in JE endemic areas account for 10000- 15000 deaths annually. The disease has high fatality rate (~30%) and nearly 50% survivors develop permanent neuropsychiatric sequelae. There is no specific treatment for JE. Vaccination is the only effective strategy available for prevention and control of JE. The wider availability and inclusion of JE vaccination in the national immunization programme in many of the affected countries have resulted in better prospects for control of JE. This review is an update on vaccines currently available, their development, recommended immunization schedule for them as well as the upcoming challenges related with cross- protectivity against hetrologous genotypes

Phylogenetic studies reveal existence of multiple lineages of a single genotype of DENV-1 (genotype III) in India during 1956–2007

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Dengue virus type 1 (DENV-1) have been mostly circulating silently with dominant serotypes DENV-2 and DENV-3 in India. However recent times have marked an increase in DENV-1 circulation in yearly outbreaks. Many studies have not been carried out on this virus type, leaving a lacunae pertaining to the circulating genotypes, since its earliest report in India. In the present study, we sequenced CprM gene junction of 13 DENV-1 isolated from Delhi and Gwalior (North India) between 2001–2007 and one 1956 Vellore isolate as reference. For comparison, we retrieved 11 other Indian and 70 global reference sequences from NCBI database, making sure that Indian and global isolates from all decades are available for comparative analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The region was found to be AT rich with no insertion or deletion. Majority of the nucleotide substitutions were silent, except 3 non-conservative amino acid changes (I → T, A → T and L → S at amino acid positions 59,114 and 155 respectively) in the Indian DENV-1 sequences, sequenced in this study. Except two 1997–98 Delhi isolates, which group in genotype I; all other Indian isolates group in genotype III. All Indian genotype III DENV-1 exhibited diversity among them, giving rise to at least 4 distinct lineages (India 1–4) showing proximity to isolates from diverse geographic locations.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The extensive phylogenetic analysis revealed consistent existence of multiple lineages of DENV-1 genotype III during the last 5 decades in India.</p