If influenza is a riddle wrapped in mystery inside an enigma, then the viral genes are the riddle, the variable surface antigens for which they code are the mystery, and the course and cause of epidemics the ultimate enigma. Paradoxically, the disease itself has remained a stable and recognizable entity through the years, whether initiated by A/PR/8/34 or A/USSR/90/77 variant viruses. Thus, evo...

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) latency in the myeloid lineage is maintained by repressive histone modifications around the major immediate early promoter (MIEP), which results in inhibition of the lytic viral life cycle. We now show that pharmacological inhibition of histone deacetylases (HDACs) relieves this repression of the MIEP and induces transient expression of the viral lytic immediate ear...

1. Abstract 2. Introduction 2.1. History and successes of cancer immunotherapy 2.2. Viruses and cancer therapy 3. Identification of tumor associated antigens 4. Ideal properties of an antigen delivery system 4.1. Why are viral vectors suitable for delivering TAAs? 5. Poxvirus vectors 5.1. Vaccinia virus 5.1.1. Use of vaccinia viral vectors to deliver tumor antigens 5.1.1.1. Carcinoembryonic ant...

Among the different subsets of dendritic cells (DC), plasmacytoid dendritic cells (PDC) play a unique role in secreting large amounts of type I interferons upon viral stimulation, but their efficiency as antigen-presenting cells has not been completely characterized. We show here, by flow cytometry, with human primary blood PDC and with a PDC cell line, that PDC display poor endocytic capacity ...

Dendritic cells (DC) represent the most potent antigen presenting cells and induce efficient cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) responses against viral infections. Targeting antigens (Ag) to receptors on DCs is a promising strategy to enhance antitumor and antiviral immune responses induced by DCs. Here, we investigated the potential of CD11c-specific single-chain fragments (scFv) fused to an immunod...

The role of T cell immunity has been acknowledged in recent vaccine development and evaluation. We tested the humoral cellular immune responses to Flucelvax®, a quadrivalent inactivated seasonal influenza containing two A (H1N1 Singapore/GP1908/2015 IVR-180 H3N2 North Carolina/04/2016) B (Iowa/06/2017 Singapore/INFTT-16-0610/2016) virus strains, using peripheral blood mononuclear cells stimulat...

Abstract Fast, sensitive, high-throughput detection of coronavirus antigens at physiologically relevant levels is essential for population screening that could prevent epidemics such as the current COVID-19 global pandemic. Optical methods based on surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy are promising this purpose because they ensure quick even single biological molecules in a sam...