Precise tracking of vaccine-responding T-cell clones reveals convergent and personalized response in identical twins

T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoire data contain information about infections that could be used in disease diagnostics and vaccine development, but extracting that information remains a major challenge. Here we developed a statistical framework to detect TCR clone proliferation and contraction from longitudinal repertoire data. We applied this framework to data from three pairs of identical twins immunized with the yellow fever vaccine. We identified 500-1500 responding TCRs in each donor and validated them using three independent assays. While the responding TCRs were mostly private, albeit with higher overlap between twins, they could be well predicted using a classifier based on sequence similarity. Our method can also be applied to samples obtained post-infection, making it suitable for systematic discovery of new infection-specific TCRs in the clinic

Functionally specialized human CD4+ T-cell subsets express physicochemically distinct TCRs

The organizational integrity of the adaptive immune system is determined by functionally discrete subsets of CD4+ T cells, but it has remained unclear to what extent lineage choice is influenced by clonotypically expressed T-cell receptors (TCRs). To address this issue, we used a high-throughput approach to profile the αβ TCR repertoires of human naive and effector/memory CD4+ T-cell subsets, irrespective of antigen specificity. Highly conserved physicochemical and recombinatorial features were encoded on a subset-specific basis in the effector/memory compartment. Clonal tracking further identified forbidden and permitted transition pathways, mapping effector/memory subsets related by interconversion or ontogeny. Public sequences were largely confined to particular effector/memory subsets, including regulatory T cells (Tregs), which also displayed hardwired repertoire features in the naive compartment. Accordingly, these cumulative repertoire portraits establish a link between clonotype fate decisions in the complex world of CD4+ T cells and the intrinsic properties of somatically rearranged TCRs

Application of ultrasonic testing method for determining defects of hot-deformed powder materials

The article is devoted to the analysis of elastic and plastic characteristics of composite materials during hot stamping. The purpose of this work is to offer optimal conditions for hot plasticity of composite porous material with determination of temperature conditions of hot stamping excluding the appearance of defects in the structure. Production of details of the difficult form by method of hot stamping from preparations of the cylindrical form is followed by development of barrel on a peripheral surface. Sludge sintered porous blanks, and sediment compact material, accompanied by a nonuniform height lateral deformation. In connection with the action of friction forces on the contact surfaces, this leads to the formation of a “barrel”. The heterogeneity of the deformed state is associated with the appearance of tangential tensile stresses on the free surface of the workpiece. If they exceed some critical degree of transverse deformation, cracks appear on the side surface, which leads to gas saturation (oxidation) of the inner layers of the forging, to the ingress of grease into them and its pressing into the volume of the part during hot stamping. In the end, this significantly reduces the properties of hot-stamped parts. Conclusion: the methods of determining the elastic characteristics depending on the geometric parameters of the workpieces, the applied strain energy, body density and temperature dependence of the plasticity characteristics of the hot deformation of the powder material are сonsidered

Study of the Effect of Silica Filler Silica 1165 on the Properties of Rubber for Rail Fastening Gaskets

Исследовано влияние кремнекислотного наполнителя Silica 1165 взамен каолина и технического углерода N220 на пласто-эластические, реометрические, физико-механические, эксплуатационные и динамические свойства резины на основе каучуков общего назначения с целью разработки эффективных шумо- и вибропоглощающих резиновых прокладок рельсовых скреплений для железнодорожных путей. Установлено, что применение кремнекислотного наполнителя Silica 1165 в составе исследованной резины приводит к повышению ее стойкости к преждевременной вулканизации, удовлетворительным физико-механическим свойствам и увеличению вибропоглощающих свойств, что является определяющим фактором для подрельсовых прокладокThe effect of silica filler Silica 1165 instead of kaolin and carbon black N220 on the plasto-elastic, rheometric, physical-mechanical, operational and dynamic properties of rubber based on general-purpose caoutchoucs was investigated in order to develop effective noise and vibration-absorbing rubber gaskets of rail fasteners for railway tracks. It has been established that the developed rubber with a sulfur vulcanizing system based on SKMS-30ARK, SKI-3 и SKD caoutchoucs with Silica 1165 additives has improved plasto-elastic and rheometric indicators, satisfactory physical and mechanical properties, is characterized by an increase in the vibration-absorbing properties of rubber, which is the determining factor for under-rail pad

Biodiversity of Coleoptera (Insecta) in the Middle and Lower Volga Regions (Russia)

(1) Background: The conservation of entomofauna in individual macroregions requires efforts to study the distribution and abundance of insects. For this purpose, databases are created that enumerate this information. Such databases, with the processing of significant factual material, make it possible to objectively assess the status of a species and, if necessary, take measures for its protection. The aim of the paper is to describe the modern Coleoptera fauna in nine regions of Russia on the basis of a recently published dataset. (2) Methods: We conducted our own studies in 1994, 1996, 1998–2003 and 2005–2022. The dataset also includes data from museum specimens from other years. We used a variety of methods, such as sifting through litter, searching under the bark of trees and stumps, trapping by light, soil traps, beer traps, window traps, etc. For each observation, the coordinates of the find, the number of individuals observed and the date were recorded. (3) Results: The dataset contains data on 1469 species and subspecies of Coleoptera from 85 families found in the Volga Region. In total, there are 31,433 samples and 9072 occurrences in the dataset. (4) Conclusions: The largest families in terms of species diversity are Curculionidae (202 species), Carabidae (145 species) and Chrysomelidae (142 species). There are 54 species of Coleoptera with a northern range boundary in the macroregion, two species with a southern range boundary and one species with an eastern range boundary. Twenty-one invasive Coleoptera species have been recorded in the macroregion

Biodiversity of Coleoptera (Insecta) in the Middle and Lower Volga Regions (Russia)

(1) Background: The conservation of entomofauna in individual macroregions requires efforts to study the distribution and abundance of insects. For this purpose, databases are created that enumerate this information. Such databases, with the processing of significant factual material, make it possible to objectively assess the status of a species and, if necessary, take measures for its protection. The aim of the paper is to describe the modern Coleoptera fauna in nine regions of Russia on the basis of a recently published dataset. (2) Methods: We conducted our own studies in 1994, 1996, 1998–2003 and 2005–2022. The dataset also includes data from museum specimens from other years. We used a variety of methods, such as sifting through litter, searching under the bark of trees and stumps, trapping by light, soil traps, beer traps, window traps, etc. For each observation, the coordinates of the find, the number of individuals observed and the date were recorded. (3) Results: The dataset contains data on 1469 species and subspecies of Coleoptera from 85 families found in the Volga Region. In total, there are 31,433 samples and 9072 occurrences in the dataset. (4) Conclusions: The largest families in terms of species diversity are Curculionidae (202 species), Carabidae (145 species) and Chrysomelidae (142 species). There are 54 species of Coleoptera with a northern range boundary in the macroregion, two species with a southern range boundary and one species with an eastern range boundary. Twenty-one invasive Coleoptera species have been recorded in the macroregion

VDJdb: a curated database of T-cell receptor sequences with known antigen specificity

The ability to decode antigen specificities encapsulated in the sequences of rearranged T-cell receptor (TCR) genes is critical for our understanding of the adaptive immune system and promises significant advances in the field of translational medicine. Recent developments in high-throughput sequencing methods (immune repertoire sequencing technology, or RepSeq) and single-cell RNA sequencing technology have allowed us to obtain huge numbers of TCR sequences from donor samples and link them to T-cell phenotypes. However, our ability to annotate these TCR sequences still lags behind, owing to the enormous diversity of the TCR repertoire and the scarcity of available data on T-cell specificities. In this paper, we present VDJdb, a database that stores and aggregates the results of published T-cell specificity assays and provides a universal platform that couples antigen specificities with TCR sequences. We demonstrate that VDJdb is a versatile instrument for the annotation of TCR repertoire data, enabling a concatenated view of antigen-specific TCR sequence motifs. VDJdb can be accessed at https://vdjdb.cdr3.net and https://github.com/antigenomics/vdjdb-db