Articles

Pathogen recognition by NK cells amplifies the pro-inflammatory cytokine production of monocyte-derived DC via IFN-γ

Besides their prominent role in the elimination of infected or malignantly transformed cells, natural killer (NK) cells serve as modulators of adaptive immune responses. Enhancing bidirectional crosstalk betwe...

Authors: Tammy Oth, Thomas H. P. M. Habets, Wilfred T. V. Germeraad, Marijke I. Zonneveld, Gerard M. J. Bos and Joris Vanderlocht

Establishment of malignantly transformed dendritic cell line SU3-ihDCTC induced by Glioma stem cells and study on its sensitivity to resveratrol

As a factor contributing to the tumor cell drug resistance, tumor microenvironment (TME) is being paid increasingly attention. However, the drug resistance of malignantly transformed cells in TME has rarely be...

Authors: Xifeng Fei, Anqi Wang, Delin Wang, Xan Meng, Jiawei Ma, Lei Hong, Ruwei Qin, Aidong Wang, Jun Dong, Qiang Huang and Zhimin Wang

Down selecting adjuvanted vaccine formulations: a comparative method for harmonized evaluation

The need for rapid and accurate comparison of panels of adjuvanted vaccine formulations and subsequent rational down selection, presents several challenges for modern vaccine development. Here we describe a me...

Authors: Sumera Y. Younis, Christophe Barnier-Quer, Simon Heuking, Vinod Sommandas, Livia Brunner, Nicole vd.Werff, Patrice Dubois, Martin Friede, Clemens Kocken, Nicolas Collin and Ed Remarque

Co-localization of lymphoid aggregates and lymphatic networks in nose- (NALT) and lacrimal duct-associated lymphoid tissue (LDALT) of mice

The lymphatic vascular pattern in the head of mice has rarely been studied, due to problems of sectioning and immunostaining of complex bony structures. Therefore, the association of head lymphoid tissues with...

Authors: Melanie Lohrberg, Reinhard Pabst and Jörg Wilting

RNA gene profile variation in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from rhesus macaques immunized with Hib conjugate vaccine, Hib capsular polysaccharide and TT carrier protein

The Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) conjugate vaccine has been widely used in children to prevent invasive Hib disease because of its strong immunogenicity and antibody response induction relative to the caps...

Authors: Jing Tang, Ying Zhang, Xiaolong Zhang, Yun Liao, Yongrong Wang, Shengjie Ouyang, Yanchun Che, Miao Xu, Jing Pu, Qi Shen, Zhanlong He, Qiang Ye and Qihan Li

Distribution of M1 and M2 macrophages in tumor islets and stroma in relation to prognosis of non-small cell lung cancer

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains the most common cause of cancer related death worldwide. Tumor-infiltrating macrophages are believed to play an important role in growth, progression, and metastasis ...

Authors: Jurgita Jackute, Marius Zemaitis, Darius Pranys, Brigita Sitkauskiene, Skaidrius Miliauskas, Simona Vaitkiene and Raimundas Sakalauskas

Cattle infection response network and its functional modules

Weighted Gene Co-expression Network analysis, a powerful technique used to extract co-expressed gene pattern from mRNA expression data, was constructed to infer common immune strategies used by cattle in respo...

Authors: Hamid Beiki, Abbas Pakdel, Ardeshir Nejati Javaremi, Ali Masoudi-Nejad and James M. Reecy

Association between major depressive disorder and pro-inflammatory cytokines and acute phase proteins among HIV-1 positive patients in Uganda

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a common psychiatric complication of HIV/AIDS. While considerable research has been undertaken to understand the psychosocial risk factors of MDD, there is a paucity of data ...

Authors: Kenneth Musinguzi, Andrew Obuku, Noeline Nakasujja, Harriet Birabwa, Juliet Nakku, Jonathan Levin and Eugene Kinyanda

Functional expression of CCL8 and its interaction with chemokine receptor CCR3

Chemokines and their cognate receptors play important role in the control of leukocyte chemotaxis, HIV entry and other inflammatory diseases. Developing an effcient method to investigate the functional express...

Authors: Baosheng Ge, Jiqiang Li, Zhijin Wei, Tingting Sun, Yanzhuo Song and Naseer Ullah Khan

Rheumatoid factor is correlated with disease activity and inflammatory markers in antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis

Some patients with antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV) also have positivity of rheumatoid factor (RF). However, the clinical significance of this occurrence remains unknown i...

Authors: Shinji Watanabe, Takahisa Gono, Kumiko Nishina, Naohiro Sugitani, Eri Watanabe, Hiroki Yabe and Chihiro Terai

Renal allograft rejection, lymphocyte infiltration, and de novo donor-specific antibodies in a novel model of non-adherence to immunosuppressive therapy

Non-adherence has been associated with reduced graft survival. The aim of this study was to investigate the immunological mechanisms underlying chronic renal allograft rejection using a model of non-adherence ...

Authors: Louisa Kühne, Bettina Jung, Helen Poth, Antonia Schuster, Simone Wurm, Petra Ruemmele, Bernhard Banas and Tobias Bergler

Mesenchymal stem cell conditioned medium alleviates oxidative stress injury induced by hydrogen peroxide via regulating miR143 and its target protein in hepatocytes

To investigate the impact of miRNA (microRNA) on hepatic oxidative stress damage under the human mesenchymal stem cell conditioned medium (MSC-CM) and explore the roles of the beta-1 adrenergic receptor (ADRB1...

Authors: Xuejing Xu, Dong Li, Xue Li, Qing Shi and Xiuli Ju

Helios + Regulatory T cell frequencies are correlated with control of viral replication and recovery of absolute CD4 T cells counts in early HIV-1 infection

The acute phase of HIV infection is characterized by massive depletion of CD4 T cells, high viral plasma levels and pronounced systemic immune activation. Regulatory T cells (Tregs) have the potential to contr...

Authors: Raquel Matavele Chissumba, Eduardo Namalango, Vânia Maphossa, Ivalda Macicame, Nilesh Bhatt, Christina Polyak, Merlin Robb, Nelson Michael, Ilesh Jani and Luc Kestens

The influence of HK2 blood group antigen on human B cell activation for ABOi-KT conditions

It is well known that ABO blood group system incompatible kidney transplantation (ABOi-KT) is an effective strategy for end-stage renal disease. The main barrier for ABOi-KT is how to keep host B cell activati...

Authors: Jingsong Cao, Luogen Liu, Yunsheng Zhang, Jianhua Xiao and Yi Wang

Hyporesponsiveness of natural killer cells and impaired inflammatory responses in critically ill patients

To investigate natural killer (NK) cell activity, circulating cytokine level and peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) cytokine production status in critically ill patients.

Authors: Minkyung Kim, Minjoo Kim, Hana Jeong, Jey Sook Chae, Young Sam Kim, Jae Gil Lee, Younsoo Cho and Jong Ho Lee

C-reactive protein (CRP) but not the related pentraxins serum amyloid P and PTX3 inhibits the proliferation and induces apoptosis of the leukemia cell line Mono Mac 6

Pentraxins are a family of highly conserved secreted proteins that regulate the innate immune system, including monocytes and macrophages. C-reactive protein (CRP) is a plasma protein whose levels can rise to ...

Authors: Wensheng Chen, Darrell Pilling and Richard H. Gomer

Transcriptomic data from two primary cell models stimulating human monocytes suggest inhibition of oxidative phosphorylation and mitochondrial function by N. meningitidis which is partially up-regulated by IL-10

Biological interpretation of DNA microarray data may differ depending on underlying assumptions and statistical tests of bioinformatics tools used. We used Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) and Ingenuity Pat...

Authors: Unni Gopinathan, Reidun Øvstebø, Berit Sletbakk Brusletto, Ole Kristoffer Olstad, Peter Kierulf, Petter Brandtzaeg and Jens Petter Berg

Correction to: Adverse events following immunization with pentavalent vaccine: experiences of newly introduced vaccine in Iran

Authors: Manoochehr Karami, Pegah Ameri, Jalal Bathaei, Zeinab Berangi, Tahereh Pashaei, Ali Zahiri, Seyed Mohsen Zahraei, Hussein Erfani and Koen Ponnet

Synergistic oligodeoxynucleotide strongly promotes CpG-induced interleukin-6 production

Bacterial genomes span a significant portion of diversity, reflecting their adaptation strategies; these strategies include nucleotide usage biases that affect chromosome configuration. Here, we explore an imm...

Authors: Shireen Nigar, Yoshinari Yamamoto, Takuma Okajima, Suguru Shigemori, Takashi Sato, Tasuku Ogita and Takeshi Shimosato

Selection of reliable reference genes for the normalisation of gene expression levels following time course LPS stimulation of murine bone marrow derived macrophages

Macrophages are key players in the initiation, perpetuation and regulation of both innate and adaptive immune responses. They largely perform these roles through modulation of the expression of genes, especial...

Authors: Akane Tanaka, Joyce To, Bronwyn O’Brien, Sheila Donnelly and Maria Lund

Adverse events following immunization with pentavalent vaccine: experiences of newly introduced vaccine in Iran

The most important factors that affect the incidence of vaccine-related complications are the constituent biological components of the vaccine, injection site reactions, age and sex. The aim of this study is t...

Authors: Manoochehr Karami, Pegah Ameri, Jalal Bathaei, Zeinab Berangi, Tahereh Pashaei, Ali Zahiri, Seyed Mohsen Zahraei, Hussein Erfani and Koen Ponnet

JAK inhibitor has the amelioration effect in lupus-prone mice: the involvement of IFN signature gene downregulation

We previously reported that JAK–STAT-pathway mediated regulation of IFN-regulatory factor genes could play an important role in SLE pathogenesis. Here, we evaluated the efficacy of the JAK inhibitor tofacitini...

Authors: Keigo Ikeda, Kunihiro Hayakawa, Maki Fujishiro, Mikiko Kawasaki, Takuya Hirai, Hiroshi Tsushima, Tomoko Miyashita, Satoshi Suzuki, Shinji Morimoto, Naoto Tamura, Kenji Takamori, Hideoki Ogawa and Iwao Sekigawa

Blocking IL-10 signalling at the time of immunization does not increase unwanted side effects in mice

Cancer therapeutic vaccine induced cytotoxic T cell (CTL) responses are pivotal for the killing of tumour cells. Blocking interleukin 10 (IL-10) signalling at the time of immunization increases vaccine induced...

Authors: Guoying Ni, Zaowen Liao, Shu Chen, Tianfang Wang, Jianwei Yuan, Xuan Pan, Kate Mounsey, Shelley Cavezza, Xiaosong Liu and Ming Q. Wei

Characteristics of the specific humoral response in patients with advanced solid tumors after active immunotherapy with a VEGF vaccine, at different antigen doses and using two distinct adjuvants

CIGB-247, a VSSP-adjuvanted VEGF-based vaccine, was evaluated in a phase I clinical trial in patients with advanced solid tumors (CENTAURO). Vaccination with the maximum dose of antigen showed an excellent saf...

Authors: Javier Sánchez Ramírez, Yanelys Morera Díaz, Mónica Bequet-Romero, Francisco Hernández-Bernal, Katty-Hind Selman-Housein Bernal, Ana de la Torre Santos, Eduardo Rafael Santiesteban Álvarez, Yenima Martín Bauta, Cimara H. Bermúdez Badell, Josué de la Torre Pupo, Jorge V. Gavilondo and Marta Ayala Avila

Detection of IL-9 producing T cells in the PBMCs of allergic asthmatic patients

Interleukin-9 (IL-9) was reported as an active participant in the pathogenesis of allergic asthma. This study aimed to investigate the major source ofIL-9 and its effect on interferon γ (IFN-γ) and immunoglobu...

Authors: Lei Jia, Ying Wang, Jiangping Li, Sha Li, Yannan Zhang, Juan Shen, Weiping Tan and Changyou Wu

Mercury alters endogenous phosphorylation profiles of SYK in murine B cells

Epidemiological evidence and animal models suggest that exposure to low and non-neurotoxic concentrations of mercury may contribute to idiosyncratic autoimmune disease. Since defects in function and signaling ...

Authors: Joseph A. Caruso, Nicholas Carruthers, Namhee Shin, Randal Gill, Paul M. Stemmer and Allen Rosenspire

γδTFH cells promote B cell maturation and antibody production in neuroblastoma

Previous studies have shown that γδ TFH cells are capable of modulating antibody production in immunized and infected mouse model. In recent studies, human γδ TFH cells are shown to contribute to the activatio...

Authors: Wenjun Mou, Wei Han, Xiaoli Ma, Xiaolin Wang, Hong Qin, Wen Zhao, Xiaoya Ren, Xi Chen, Wei Yang, Haiyan Cheng, Xisi Wang, Hui Zhang, Xin Ni, Huanmin Wang and Jingang Gui

IG and TR single chain fragment variable (scFv) sequence analysis: a new advanced functionality of IMGT/V-QUEST and IMGT/HighV-QUEST

IMGT®, the international ImMunoGeneTics information system® (http://​www.​imgt.​org), was created in 1989 in Montpellier, France (CNRS and Montpellier Uni...

Authors: Véronique Giudicelli, Patrice Duroux, Sofia Kossida and Marie-Paule Lefranc

Autoantibodies against BAFF, APRIL or IL21 - an alternative pathogenesis for antibody-deficiencies?

The ability of anti-cytokine antibodies to play a disease-causing role in the pathogenesis of immunodeficiencies is widely accepted. The aim of this study was to investigate whether autoantibodies against BAFF...

Authors: Marian-Christopher Pott, Natalie Frede, Jennifer Wanders, Lennart Hammarström, Erik-Oliver Glocker, Cristina Glocker, Fariba Tahami and Bodo Grimbacher

The imbalance of Th17/Treg cells is involved in the progression of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in mice

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a common, chronic liver disease worldwide. Recent studies have shown that T helper (Th) 17 and regulatory T (Treg) cells play critical roles in various disorders of...

Authors: Beihui He, Liyan Wu, Wei Xie, Yitong Shao, Jianping Jiang, Zhenzhong Zhao, Maoxiang Yan, Zhiyun Chen and Dawei Cui

IgMk paraprotein from gammopathy patient can bind to cardiolipin and interfere with coagulation assay: a case report

The monoclonal gammopathies are a group of plasma-cell proliferative disorders characterized by the secretion of monoclonal immunoglobulin (M protein or paraprotein). Some rare cases have revealed the specific...

Authors: Xin-yao Wu, Yu-feng Yin, Jia-lin Teng, Li-wei Zhang and Cheng-de Yang

Hybrid approach to model the spatial regulation of T cell responses

Moving from the molecular and cellular level to a multi-scale systems understanding of immune responses requires the development of novel approaches to integrate knowledge and data from different biological le...

Authors: Anass Bouchnita, Gennady Bocharov, Andreas Meyerhans and Vitaly Volpert

A model of auto immune response

In this work, we develop a theoretical model of an auto immune response. This is based on modifications of standard second messenger trigger models using both signalling pathways and diffusion and a macro leve...

Authors: James K. Peterson, Alison M. Kesson and Nicholas J. C. King

Wound healing: time to look for intelligent, ‘natural’ immunological approaches?

There is now good evidence that cytokines and growth factors are key factors in tissue repair and often exert anti-infective activities. However, engineering such factors for global use, even in the most remot...

Authors: Olivier Garraud, Wael N. Hozzein and Gamal Badr

A theoretical model of the West Nile Virus survival data

In this work, we develop a theoretical model that explains the survival data in West Nile Virus infection.

Authors: James K. Peterson, Alison M. Kesson and Nicholas J. C. King

Experimental validation of the RATE tool for inferring HLA restrictions of T cell epitopes

The RATE tool was recently developed to computationally infer the HLA restriction of given epitopes from immune response data of HLA typed subjects without additional cumbersome experimentation.

Authors: Sinu Paul, Cecilia S. Lindestam Arlehamn, Veronique Schulten, Luise Westernberg, John Sidney, Bjoern Peters and Alessandro Sette

Generation of populations of antigen-specific cytotoxic T cells using DCs transfected with DNA construct encoding HER2/neu tumor antigen epitopes

Recent fundamental and clinical studies have confirmed the effectiveness of utilizing the potential of the immune system to remove tumor cells disseminated in a patient’s body. Cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) a...

Authors: Maria Kuznetsova, Julia Lopatnikova, Julia Khantakova, Rinat Maksyutov, Amir Maksyutov and Sergey Sennikov

Monocyte differentiation and macrophage priming are regulated differentially by pentraxins and their ligands

Circulating bone marrow-derived monocytes can leave the blood, enter a tissue, and differentiate into M1 inflammatory, M2a remodeling/fibrotic, or M2c/Mreg resolving/immune-regulatory macrophages. Macrophages ...

Authors: Darrell Pilling, Elkin Galvis-Carvajal, Tejas R. Karhadkar, Nehemiah Cox and Richard H. Gomer

Long-term leukocyte reconstitution in NSG mice transplanted with human cord blood hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells

Humanized mice (hu mice) are based on the transplantation of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells into immunodeficient mice and have become important pre-clinical models for biomedical research. However, da...

Authors: Annette Audigé, Mary-Aude Rochat, Duo Li, Sandra Ivic, Audrey Fahrny, Christina K. S. Muller, Gustavo Gers-Huber, Renier Myburgh, Simon Bredl, Erika Schlaepfer, Alexandra U. Scherrer, Stefan P. Kuster and Roberto F. Speck

The immunoregulatory role of alpha enolase in dendritic cell function during Chlamydia infection

We have previously reported that interleukin-10 (IL-10) deficient dendritic cells (DCs) are potent antigen presenting cells that induced elevated protective immunity against Chlamydia. To further investigate the ...

Authors: Khamia Ryans, Yusuf Omosun, Danielle N. McKeithen, Tankya Simoneaux, Camilla C. Mills, Nathan Bowen, Francis O. Eko, Carolyn M. Black, Joseph U. Igietseme and Qing He

The cytokine polymorphisms affecting Th1/Th2 increase the susceptibility to, and severity of, chronic ITP

T-helper cell type 1 (Th1) polarization in chronic immune thrombocytopenia (cITP) has been reported at the protein and mRNA levels. We evaluated the impact of Th1/Th2 cytokine and cytokine receptor functional ...

Authors: Noriyuki Takahashi, Takayuki Saitoh, Nanami Gotoh, Yasuhiro Nitta, Lobna Alkebsi, Tetsuhiro Kasamatsu, Yusuke Minato, Akihiko Yokohama, Norifumi Tsukamoto, Hiroshi Handa and Hirokazu Murakami

Peptides mimicking viral proteins of porcine circovirus type 2 were profiled by the spectrum of mouse anti-PCV2 antibodies

Porcine circovirus 2 (PCV2) is a small, non-enveloped DNA virus causing swine lymphocyte depletion and severe impact on the swine industry. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antigenicity and immunogeni...

Authors: Ling-Chu Hung, Cheng-Yao Yang and Ivan-Chen Cheng

Recombinant Salmonella expressing SspH2-EscI fusion protein limits its colonization in mice

Activation of inflammasome contributes to the clearance of intracellular bacteria. C-terminus of E. coli EscI protein can activate NLRC4 (NLR family, CARD domain containing-4) inflammasome in macrophages. The pur...

Authors: Maozhi Hu, Weixin Zhao, Wei Gao, Wenhua Li, Chuang Meng, Qiuxiang Yan, Yuyang Wang, Xiaohui Zhou, Shizhong Geng, Zhiming Pan, Guiyou Cui and Xinan Jiao

Poly I:C induces collective migration of HaCaT keratinocytes via IL-8

Delayed wound healing reduces the quality of life (QOL) of patients. Thus, understanding the mechanism of wound healing is indispensable for better management. However, the role of innate immunity in wound hea...

Authors: Kazuhide Takada, Shihoko Komine-Aizawa, Naoko Hirohata, Quang Duy Trinh, Atsuyoshi Nishina, Hirokazu Kimura and Satoshi Hayakawa

Broad induction of immunoregulatory mechanisms after a short course of anti-IL-7Rα antibodies in NOD mice

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease caused by T cell-mediated destruction of the insulin-producing β-cells in the pancreas. Therefore, approaches that effectively halt the pathogenic T cell response are p...

Authors: Cristina Vazquez-Mateo, Justin Collins, Michelle Fleury and Hans Dooms

Impact of disease activity on health-related quality of life in systemic lupus erythematosus – a cross-sectional analysis of the Swiss Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Cohort Study (SSCS)

To assess the impact of disease activity on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

Authors: Benjamin Chaigne, Carlo Chizzolini, Thomas Perneger, Marten Trendelenburg, Uyen Huynh-Do, Eric Dayer, Thomas Stoll, Johannes von Kempis and Camillo Ribi

Forkhead-box transcription factor 1 affects the apoptosis of natural regulatory T cells by controlling Aven expression

Regulatory T (Treg) cells play important roles in autoimmune diseases, cancer, and organ transplantation. Forkhead box protein o1 (Foxo1) and IL-7Rα(CD127) are closely related to the homeostasis of Treg cells....

Authors: Zhitao Cai, Hong Liu and Xiongfei Wu

Validation of T-Track® CMV to assess the functionality of cytomegalovirus-reactive cell-mediated immunity in hemodialysis patients

Uncontrolled cytomegalovirus (CMV) replication in immunocompromised solid-organ transplant recipients is a clinically relevant issue and an indication of impaired CMV-specific cell-mediated immunity (CMI). Pri...

Authors: Bernhard Banas, Carsten A. Böger, Gerhard Lückhoff, Bernd Krüger, Sascha Barabas, Julia Batzilla, Mathias Schemmerer, Josef Köstler, Hanna Bendfeldt, Anne Rascle, Ralf Wagner, Ludwig Deml, Joachim Leicht and Bernhard K. Krämer

An optimized IFN-γ ELISpot assay for the sensitive and standardized monitoring of CMV protein-reactive effector cells of cell-mediated immunity

In healthy individuals, Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is efficiently controlled by CMV-specific cell-mediated immunity (CMI). Functional impairment of CMI in immunocompromized individuals however can lead to...

Authors: Sascha Barabas, Theresa Spindler, Richard Kiener, Charlotte Tonar, Tamara Lugner, Julia Batzilla, Hanna Bendfeldt, Anne Rascle, Benedikt Asbach, Ralf Wagner and Ludwig Deml

Insight into SNPs and epitopes of E protein of newly emerged genotype-I isolates of JEV from Midnapur, West Bengal, India

Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is a mosquito-borne flavivirus that causes Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) in humans. Genotype-I (as co-circulating cases with Genotype-III) w...

Authors: Shyamashree Banerjee, Parth Sarthi Sen Gupta and Amal Kumar Bandyopadhyay