Pathogen Proteins Eliciting Antibodies Do Not Share Epitopes with Host Proteins: A Bioinformatics Approach

The best way to prevent diseases caused by pathogens is by the use of vaccines. The advent of genomics enables genome-wide searches of new vaccine candidates, called reverse vaccinology. The most common strategy to apply reverse vaccinology is by designing subunit recombinant vaccines, which usually generate an humoral immune response due to B-cell epitopes in proteins. A major problem for this strategy is the identification of protective immunogenic proteins from the surfome of the pathogen. Epitope mimicry may lead to auto-immune phenomena related to several human diseases. A sequence-based computational analysis has been carried out applying the BLASTP algorithm. Therefore, two huge databases have been created, one with the most complete and current linear B-cell epitopes, and the other one with the surface-protein sequences of the main human respiratory bacterial pathogens. We found that none of the 7353 linear B-cell epitopes analysed shares any sequence identity region with human proteins capable of generating antibodies, and that only 1% of the 2175 exposed proteins analysed contain a stretch of shared sequence with the human proteome. These findings suggest the existence of a mechanism to avoid autoimmunity. We also propose a strategy for corroborating or warning about the viability of a protein linear B-cell epitope as a putative vaccine candidate in a reverse vaccinology study; so, epitopes without any sequence identity with human proteins should be very good vaccine candidates, and the other way around

Effect of enzyme hydrolysis on saccharification and consumer acceptability of banana fig \"malt\" drink

No Abstract. Global Journal of Pure and Applied Physics Vol. 14 (1) 2008 pp. 55-5

On Slope Estimation Capabilities of Some Second Order Response Surface Designs

Two second order response surface designs (central composite design and extended central composite design) are compared on the basis of their slope estimation capabilities of a response function using quantile plots. A large number of points is randomly generated on a sphere of radius centred at the origin in a given region of interest. The scaled average slope variance is evaluated at each of these points and the quantiles of the resulting values are plotted. Both designs were compared using slope rotatability design criterion and result obtained show that both designs have stable slope variance and the extended central composite design is better than the central composite design for large values of the radius

Food reward sensitivity, impulsivity, and weight change during and after a 3-month weight loss program.

BackgroundGreater sensitivity to food rewards and higher levels of impulsivity (and an interaction between these variables, termed "reinforcement pathology") have been associated with obesity in cross-sectional studies. Less is known regarding how these constructs may impact attempts at weight loss or longer-term weight loss maintenance.MethodsWe provided 75 adults (69%Female, 84%White, age = 50.8y, BMI = 31.2kg/m2) with a 3-month Internet-based weight loss program and assessed weight, food reward sensitivity (via the Power of Food Scale [PFS]), and impulsivity (via Go No-Go [GNG] and Delay Discounting [DD] computer tasks) at baseline and at Months 3, 6, 9, and 12. No additional intervention was provided Months 3-12. Multi-level mixed-effect models were used to examine changes in PFS, GNG, and DD over time and associations between these measures and weight loss/regain.ResultsParticipants lost 6.0±1.1kg Months 0-3 and regained 2.4±1.1kg Months 3-12. Across time points, higher PFS scores were associated with higher weight, p = .007; however, there were no significant associations between GNG or DD and weight nor between the interactions of PFS and GNG or DD and weight, ps>.05. There were significant decreases from Months 0-3 in PFS, GNG, and DD, ps .05.ConclusionResults demonstrated an association between food reward sensitivity and weight. Further, decreases in both food reward sensitivity and impulsivity were observed during an initial weight loss program, but neither baseline levels nor improvements were associated with weight change. Taken together, results suggest that the constructs of food reward sensitivity, impulsivity, and reinforcement pathology may have limited clinical utility within behavioral weight management interventions. Future intervention studies should examine whether food-related impulsivity tasks lead to a similar pattern of results

EFFECT OF DIFFERENT DOUGH IMPROVERS ON THE PROXIMATE COMPOSITION, MINERALS, VITAMINS AND SENSORY PROPERTIES OF WHEAT BREAD

Abstract Comparative evaluation of bread made from wheat flour using five different dough improvers was evaluated. The improvers were ascorbic acid, EDC-2000, (etheylen

Clinical activity of afatinib (BIBW 2992) in patients with lung adenocarcinoma with mutations in the kinase domain of HER2/neu.

Human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER)2/neu kinase domain mutations are found in approximately 1-4% of lung adenocarcinomas with a similar phenotype to tumors with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations. Afatinib is a potent irreversible ErbB family blocker. We determined the tumor genomic status of the EGFR and HER2 genes in non- or light smokers with lung adenocarcinoma in patients who were entered into an exploratory Phase II study with afatinib. Five patients with a non-smoking history and metastatic lung adenocarcinomas bearing mutations in the kinase domain of HER2 gene were identified, three of which were evaluable for response. Objective response was observed in all three patients, even after failure of other EGFR- and/or HER2-targeted treatments; the case histories of these patients are described in this report. These findings suggest that afatinib is a potential novel treatment option for this subgroup of patients, even when other EGFR and HER2 targeting treatments have failed