b a ckground: the role of lectins is important in interaction between pathogens and mosquito vectors. this study was performed to identify agglutinin activities of protein molecules on the midgut of culex pipiens . m e t hods: c u lex pipiens was reared in insectray condition and the midguts of males and females (blood fed and un- fed) were dissected separately in tris-hcl buffer. the extracts ...

Recombinant subunit vaccines are an efficient strategy to meet the demands of a possible influenza pandemic, because of rapid and scalable production. However, vaccines made from recombinant Hemagglutinin (HA) subunit protein are often of low potency, requiring repeated boosting to generate a sustained immune response. Previously, we demonstrated improved immunogenicity of a plant-made H1 Hemag...

Recombinant cDNA clones representing the fusion (F) and hemagglutinin-neuraminidase (HN) proteins of two mumps virus strains different in fusogenicity were constructed. Upon transfection of COS7 cells, extensive cell fusion was observed only when cells expressed the F protein of the fusing strain together with the HN protein derived from either strain. Mutational analyses further showed that th...

A modification of the two-dimensional protein electrophoresis system of O'Farrell was used to resolve influenza A virus proteins from each other and from host proteins in infected cells. Viral protein spots corresponding to the hemagglutinin proteins, neuraminidase, nucleocapsid protein, and nonstructural protein, were identified on the two-dimensional electrophoretogram. Use of the two-dimensi...

We have identified two extremely large open reading frames (ORFs) in Haemophilus ducreyi 35000, lspA1 and lspA2, each of which encodes a predicted protein product whose N-terminal half is approximately 43% similar to the N-terminal half of Bordetella pertussis filamentous hemagglutinin (FhaB). To the best of our knowledge, lspA1 (12,500 nucleotides [nt]) and lspA2 (14,800 nt) are among the larg...

Rapid evolution is a hallmark of the viral kingdom and a major concern for developing universal vaccines. The isolation of substantial numbers of viral sequence variants at highly variable viral protein domains remains a major challenge. We previously developed a combinatorial method for the isolation of novel sequences to cope with rapid viral variations at the G-H loop of Foot and Mouth Disea...

Purified type A influenza viral hemagglutinin stimulates an in vitro cell-mediated cytotoxic cell response that exhibits a high degree of specificity for the immunizing hemagglutinin. The response magnitude is proportional to the hemagglutinin dose used for stimulation. The lytic activity of the effector cells is H-2 restricted. Analysis of the specificity of the response indicated that these c...

The influenza hemagglutinins are viral coat glycoproteins that facilitate viral binding to the host cell wall; as a result, the virulence of any strain of flu depends significantly on how well the hemagglutinin of that strain promotes that binding. Characterizing the evolution of the hemagglutinins is thus fundamental to predicting the virulence of the virus. Here, I describe a linear regressio...

Objective(s): Heparin-binding hemagglutinin (HBHA), a mycobacterial cell surface protein, mediates adhesion to nonphagocytic cells and the dissemination of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) from the site of primary infection. Superior expression systems are required to obtain abundant M. tuberculosis proteins for the purpose of diagnosing M. tuberculosis infection or for the immuniza...

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 d...