Influenza: From zoonosis to pandemic

Global surveillance and advances in vaccine technology are essential to answer the threat of influenza pandemics http://ow.ly/Yt3e

Advances in influenza vaccination

Influenza virus infections yearly cause high morbidity and mortality burdens in humans, and the development of a new influenza pandemic continues to threaten mankind as a Damoclean sword. Influenza vaccines have been produced by using egg-based virus growth and passaging techniques that were developed more than 60 years ago, following the identification of influenza A virus as an etiological agent of seasonal influenza. These vaccines aimed mainly at eliciting neutralizing antibodies targeting antigenically variable regions of the hemagglutinin (HA) protein, which requires regular updates to match circulating seasonal influenza A and B virus strains. Given the relatively limited protection induced by current seasonal influenza vaccines, a more universal influenza vaccine that would protect against more - if not all - influenza viruses is among the largest unmet medical needs of the 21st century. New insights into correlates of protection from influenza and into broad B- and T-cell protective anti-influenza immune responses offer promising avenues for innovative vaccine development as well as manufacturing strategies or platforms, leading to the development of a new generation of vaccines. These aim at the rapid and massive production of influenza vaccines that provide broad protective and long-lasting immunity. Recent advances in influenza vaccine research demonstrate the feasibility of a wide range of approaches and call for the initiation of preclinical proof-of-principle studies followed by clinical trials in humans

Religious diversity, empathy, and God images : perspectives from the psychology of religion shaping a study among adolescents in the UK

Major religious traditions agree in advocating and promoting love of neighbour as well as love of God. Love of neighbour is reflected in altruistic behaviour and empathy stands as a key motivational factor underpinning altruism. This study employs the empathy scale from the Junior Eysenck Impulsiveness Questionnaire to assess the association between empathy and God images among a sample of 5993 religiously diverse adolescents (13–15 years old) attending state maintained schools in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and London. The key psychological theory being tested by these data concerns the linkage between God images and individual differences in empathy. The data demonstrate that religious identity (e.g. Christian, Muslim) and religious attendance are less important than the God images which young people hold. The image of God as a God of mercy is associated with higher empathy scores, while the image of God as a God of justice is associated with lower empathy scores

Histone deacetylase 11 inhibition promotes breast cancer metastasis from lymph nodes

Lymph node (LN) metastases correspond with a worse prognosis in nearly all cancers, yet the occurrence of cancer spreading from LNs remains controversial. Additionally, the mechanisms explaining how cancers survive and exit LNs are largely unknown. Here, we show that breast cancer patients frequently have LN metastases that closely resemble distant metastases. In addition, using a microsurgical model, we show how LN metastasis development and dissemination is regulated by the expression of a chromatin modifier, histone deacetylase 11 (HDAC11). Genetic and pharmacologic blockade of HDAC11 decreases LN tumor growth, yet substantially increases migration and distant metastasis formation. Collectively, we reveal a mechanism explaining how HDAC11 plasticity promotes breast cancer growth as well as dissemination from LNs and suggest caution with the use of HDAC inhibitors

Companion Animals as a Source of Viruses for Human Beings and Food Production Animals

Companion animals comprise a wide variety of species, including dogs, cats, horses, ferrets, guinea pigs, reptiles, birds and ornamental fish, as well as food production animal species, such as domestic pigs, kept as companion animals. Despite their prominent place in human society, little is known about the role of companion animals as sources of viruses for people and food production animals. Therefore, we reviewed the literature for accounts of infections of companion animals by zoonotic viruses and viruses of food production animals, and prioritized these viruses in terms of human health and economic importance. In total, 138 virus species reportedly capable of infecting companion animals were of concern for human and food production animal health: 59 of these viruses were infectious for human beings, 135 were infectious for food production mammals and birds, and 22 were infectious for food production fishes. Viruses of highest concern for human health included hantaviruses, Tahyna virus, rabies virus, West Nile virus, tick-borne encephalitis virus, Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus, Aichi virus, European bat lyssavirus, hepatitis E virus, cowpox virus, G5 rotavirus, influenza A virus and lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus. Viruses of highest concern for food production mammals and birds included bluetongue virus, African swine fever virus, foot-and-mouth disease virus, lumpy skin disease virus, Rift Valley fever virus, porcine circovirus, classical swine fever virus, equine herpesvirus 9, peste des petits ruminants virus and equine infectious anaemia virus. Viruses of highest concern for food production fishes included cyprinid herpesvirus 3 (koi herpesvirus), viral haemorrhagic septicaemia virus and infectious pancreatic necrosis virus. Of particular concern as sources of zoonotic or food production animal viruses were domestic carnivores, rodents and food production animals kept as companion animals. The current list of viruses provides an objective basis for more in-depth analysis of the risk of companion animals as sources of viruses for human and food production animal health

A Pragmatic Assessment of Government Support for Organic Agriculture in Ireland

Drawing on a pragmatic approach, this paper provides an analysis of governmental support for organic farming in Ireland. There are varying levels of encouragement and programmes provided to farmers in their conversion from conventional to organic production, and in their maintenance of organic production. Support policies vary across regions and are linked to European Union legislation, thus it is challenging to document the many types of support in place. This research investigates relevant technical, financial, and policy support available to organic farmers in Ireland. This exploratory study develops an assessment of Ireland within eight key categories of organic agricultural support: leadership, policy, research, technical support, financial support, marketing and promotion, education and information, and future developments. Information and data from the Irish Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (DAFF), the Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority (Teagasc), and other governmental and semi-governmental agencies were utilized to assess the level of support in each category. Following the pragmatic approach, this assessment provides key findings which allow policymakers, organizations and citizens to better understand the current situation and set a path for the future development of organic farming in Ireland

The processing, properties and use of the pyrotechnic mixture-titanium subhydride/potassium perchlorate

Development of this pyrotechnic occurred because of the need for a static insensitive material to meet personnel safety requirements and related system safety issues in nuclear weapon energetic material component designs. Ti subhydride materials are made by the thermal dehydrding of commercial Ti hydride powder to the desired equivalent hydrogen composition in the Ti lattice. These Ti subhydrides, when blended with K perchlorate, meet the static insensitivity requirement of not being initiated from an equivalent human body electrostatic discharge. Individual material and blend qualification requirements provide a reproducible material from lot to lot. These pyrotechnic formulations meet the high reliability requirements (0.9995) for initiation and performance parameters and have the necessary stability and compatibility to meet long lived requirements of more than 25 years. Various experiences and problems are also discussed that have led to a mature technology for Ti subhydride/K perchlorate during its use in energetic material component designs

Association between vaccine adjuvant effect and pre-seasonal immunity. Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised immunogenicity trials comparing squalene-adjuvanted and aqueous inactivated influenza vaccines

The immunogenicity benefit of inactivated influenza vaccine (IIV) adjuvanted by squalene over non-adjuvanted aqueous IIV was explored in a meta-analysis involving 49 randomised trials published between 1999 and 2017, and 22,470 eligible persons of all age classes. Most vaccines contained 15 μg viral haemagglutinin per strain. Adjuvanted IIV mostly contained 9.75 mg squalene per dose. Homologous pre- and post-vaccination geometric mean titres (GMTs) of haemagglutination-inhibition (HI) antibody were recorded for 290 single influenza (sub-)type arms. The adjuvant effect was expressed as the ratio of post-vaccination GMTs between squalene-IIV and aqueous IIV (GMTR, 145 estimates). GMTRs > 1.0 favoured squalene-IIV over aqueous IIV. For all influenza (sub-)types, the adjuvant effect proved negatively associated with pre-vaccination GMT and mean age. The adjuvant effect appeared most pronounced in young children (mean age < 2.5 years) showing an average GMTR of 3.7 (95% CI: 2.5 to 5.5). With increasing age, GMTR values gradually decreased towards 1.4 (95% CI: 1.0 to 1.9) in older adults. Heterologous antibody titrations simulating mismatch between vaccine and circulating virus (30 GMTR estimates) again showed a larger adjuvant effect at young age. GMT values and their variances were converted to antibody-predicted protection rates using an evidence-based clinical protection curve. The adjuvant effect was expressed as the protection rate differences, which showed similar age patterns as corresponding GMTR values. However for influenza B, the adjuvant effect lasted longer than for influenza A, possibly due to a generally later influenza B virus exposure. Collectively, this meta-analysis indicates the highest benefit of squalene-IIV over aqueous IIV in young children and decreasing benefit with progressing age. This trend is similar for seasonal influenza (sub-)types and the 2009 pandemic strain, by both homologous and heterologous titration. The impact of pre-seasonal immunity on vaccine effectiveness, and its implications for age-specific vaccination recommendations, are discussed

On the Potts model partition function in an external field

We study the partition function of Potts model in an external (magnetic) field, and its connections with the zero-field Potts model partition function. Using a deletion-contraction formulation for the partition function Z for this model, we show that it can be expanded in terms of the zero-field partition function. We also show that Z can be written as a sum over the spanning trees, and the spanning forests, of a graph G. Our results extend to Z the well-known spanning tree expansion for the zero-field partition function that arises though its connections with the Tutte polynomial

The Value of Information for Populations in Varying Environments

The notion of information pervades informal descriptions of biological systems, but formal treatments face the problem of defining a quantitative measure of information rooted in a concept of fitness, which is itself an elusive notion. Here, we present a model of population dynamics where this problem is amenable to a mathematical analysis. In the limit where any information about future environmental variations is common to the members of the population, our model is equivalent to known models of financial investment. In this case, the population can be interpreted as a portfolio of financial assets and previous analyses have shown that a key quantity of Shannon's communication theory, the mutual information, sets a fundamental limit on the value of information. We show that this bound can be violated when accounting for features that are irrelevant in finance but inherent to biological systems, such as the stochasticity present at the individual level. This leads us to generalize the measures of uncertainty and information usually encountered in information theory