Mitochondrial Lysyl-tRNA Synthetase Independent Import of tRNA Lysine into Yeast Mitochondria

Aminoacyl tRNA synthetases play a central role in protein synthesis by charging tRNAs with amino acids. Yeast mitochondrial lysyl tRNA synthetase (Msk1), in addition to the aminoacylation of mitochondrial tRNA, also functions as a chaperone to facilitate the import of cytosolic lysyl tRNA. In this report, we show that human mitochondrial Kars (lysyl tRNA synthetase) can complement the growth defect associated with the loss of yeast Msk1 and can additionally facilitate the in vitro import of tRNA into mitochondria. Surprisingly, the import of lysyl tRNA can occur independent of Msk1 in vivo. This suggests that an alternative mechanism is present for the import of lysyl tRNA in yeast

Carrier induced epitopic suppression of antibody responses induced by virus-like particles is a dynamic phenomenon caused by carrier-specific antibodies.

Pre-existing immunity against vaccine carrier proteins has been reported to inhibit the immune response against antigens conjugated to the same carrier by a process termed carrier induced epitopic suppression (CIES). Hence understanding the phenomenon of CIES is of major importance for the development of conjugate vaccines. Virus-like particles (VLPs) are a novel class of potent immunological carriers which have been successfully used to enhance the antibody response to virtually any conjugated antigen. In the present study we investigated the impact of a pre-existing VLP-specific immune response on the development of antibody responses against a conjugated model peptide after primary, secondary and tertiary immunization. Although VLP-specific immune responses led to reduced peptide-specific antibody titers, we showed that CIES against peptide-VLP conjugates could be overcome by high coupling densities, repeated injections and/or higher doses of conjugate vaccine. Furthermore we dissected VLP-specific immunity by adoptively transferring VLP-specific antibodies, B-cells or T(helper) cells separately into naïve mice and found that the observed CIES against peptide-VLP conjugates was mainly mediated by carrier-specific antibodies

Bacterially produced recombinant influenza vaccines based on virus-like particles

Although current influenza vaccines are effective in general, there is an urgent need for the development of new technologies to improve vaccine production timelines, capacities and immunogenicity. Herein, we describe the development of an influenza vaccine technology which enables recombinant production of highly efficient influenza vaccines in bacterial expression systems. The globular head domain of influenza hemagglutinin, comprising most of the protein's neutralizing epitopes, was expressed in E. coli and covalently conjugated to bacteriophage-derived virus-like particles produced independently in E.coli. Conjugate influenza vaccines produced this way were used to immunize mice and found to elicit immune sera with high antibody titers specific for the native influenza hemagglutinin protein and high hemagglutination-inhibition titers. Moreover vaccination with these vaccines induced full protection against lethal challenges with homologous and highly drifted influenza strains