There is an imperative need for effective preventive vaccines against human cytomegalovirus as it poses a significant threat to the immunologically immature, causing congenital disease, and to the immune compromised including transplant recipients. In this study, we examined the efficacy of synthetic long peptides (SLPs) as a CD4+ and CD8+ T cell-eliciting preventive vaccine approach against mo...

Introduction Preventive vaccination against infectious diseases is considered one of the most successful health measures of all time. Therapeutic vaccination against established diseases such as persistent infections and cancer has proven much more challenging, because the vaccine intervention must combat an immune system that has been restrained by tolerizing or polarizing mechanisms that sust...

Avian bornaviruses are causative agents of proventricular dilatation disease (PDD), an often fatal disease of parrots and related species (order Psittaciformes) which is widely distributed in captive psittacine populations and may affect endangered species. Here, we established a vaccination strategy employing two different well described viral vectors, namely recombinant Newcastle disease viru...

BACKGROUND The final endgame strategy of global polio eradication initiative includes switching from trivalent oral poliovirus vaccines (tOPV) to bivalent oral polio vaccine (bOPV), and introduction of inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV). This study compares IPV with tOPV week 39 boost in Indian infants. METHODS Starting 28 March 2012, we enrolled 372 Indian infant-mother pairs from Kolkata,...

BACKGROUND Although CD4 T cells are crucial for defense against M.tb, it is still not clear whether the optimal response against M.tb in fact involves both CD4 and CD8 T cells. To test this, we used a new vaccine strategy that generated a strong balanced T cell response consisting of both CD4 and CD8 T cells. METHODS AND FINDINGS To compare CD4 and CD8 responses against Ag85B-TB10.4 (H4), H4 ...

BACKGROUND Protecting young children from pandemic influenza should also reduce transmission to susceptible adults, including pregnant women. METHODS An open study assessed immunogenicity and reactogenicity of a heterologous booster dose of A/turkey/Turkey/1/2005(H5N1)-AS03B (AS03B is an Adjuvant System containing α-tocopherol and squalene in an oil-in-water emulsion [5.93 mg tocopherol]) in ...

The prevalence of adult HIV/AIDS in Thailand is declining due to intense prevention strategies, but it still continues to be a critical health problem with a prevalence of 1.5%. Several HIV vaccine candidates for the prevention of HIV infection or progress to AIDS were examined in clinical trials. We evaluated the cost-effectiveness of a vaccination regimen (rBCG prime-rDIs boost) currently in ...

Further advances are required in understanding protection from AIDS by T-cell immunity. We analyzed a set of multigenic simian/human immunodeficiency virus (SHIV) DNA and fowlpox virus priming and boosting vaccines for immunogenicity and protective efficacy in outbred pigtail macaques. The number of vaccinations required, the effect of DNA vaccination alone, and the effect of cytokine (gamma in...

Research in mucosal vaccination in finfish has gained prominence in the last decade in pursuit of mucosal vaccines that would lengthen the duration of protective immunity in vaccinated fish. However, injectable vaccines have continued to dominate in the vaccination of finfish because they are perceived to be more protective than mucosal vaccines. Therefore, it has become important to identify t...

Intradermal (ID) BCG injection provides incomplete protection against TB in humans and experimental models. Alternative BCG vaccination strategies may improve protection in model species, including rhesus macaques. This study compares the immunogenicity and efficacy of BCG administered by ID and intravenous (IV) injection, or as an intratracheal mucosal boost (ID + IT), against aerosol challeng...