The naïve antibody/B-cell receptor (BCR) repertoires of different individuals ought to exhibit significant functional commonality, given that most pathogens trigger an effective antibody response immunodominant epitopes. Sequence-based repertoire analysis has so far offered little evidence for this phenomenon. For example, a recent study estimated the number shared (‘public’) clonotypes in circ...

We show here an effective and novel approach to engineer peptide-based vaccines using a chemically defined system, known as multiple peptide antigen systems (MAPs), to protect an inbred mouse strain from infection against rodent malaria. 10 mono- and di-epitope MAP models containing different arrangements and stoichiometry of functional B and/or T helper cell epitopes from the circumsporozoite ...

Epitopes are antigenic determinants that are useful because they induce B-cell antibody production and stimulate T-cell activation. Bioinformatics can enable rapid, efficient prediction of potential epitopes. Here, we designed a novel B-cell linear epitope prediction system called LEPS, Linear Epitope Prediction by Propensities and Support Vector Machine, that combined physico-chemical propensi...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Clearance of hepatitis B virus (HBV) is characterised by a strong cytotoxic T cell response. Persistence of HBV in chronic hepatitis B carriers may be related to failure of this response. The aim of this study was to determine whether HLA class I restricted cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) responses persist in anti-hepatitis B e (HBe) positive / HBV DNA negative individuals, and to ...

The 41 kD flagellin of Borrelia burgdorferi (B. burgdorferi) is a major component of periplasmic flagellar filament core and a good candidate for serodiagnosis in early stage of Lyme disease. Here, we chose 89 B. burgdorferi strains in China, amplified the gene encoding the 41 kD flagellin, and compared the sequences. The results showed that genetic diversity presented in the 41 kD flagellin ge...

Recently, an HLA-B*3501-restricted cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTL) epitope in the nucleoprotein (NP418–426) of influenza A viruses was identified, which exhibited a high degree of variability. In the present study, the recognition of epitope variants by human cytotoxic Tlymphocytes (CTL) was investigated. Human CD8+ CTL clones were specific for NP418–426 epitope variants within one subtype of inf...

Recent developments in vaccine construction include the use of attenuated, avirulent strains of Salmonella as carriers of foreign antigens. These recombinant strains can elicit a heterologous immune response when injected into animals, demonstrating potential for their use in the construction of many vaccines. In the present study, a B-cell epitope of Murray Valley encephalitis virus (MVE) was ...

Epithelial Ovarian Cancer (EOC) cells expression of a novel carbohydrate antigen was defined using a human VH4-34 encoded IgM monoclonal antibody (mAb216). MAb216 binds to a poly N-acetyllactosamine epitope expressed on B cells and kills normal and malignant B cells in vitro and in vivo. EOC patient ascites and EOC cell lines were used to study the anti tumor effect of mAb216. Various assays we...

background and objectives:   iranian chronic hbv carrier’s population has shown a unique pattern of genotype d distri- bution all around the country. the aim of this study was to explore more details of evolutionary history of carriers based on structural surface proteins from different provinces. materials and methods: sera obtained from 360 isolates from 12 different regions of country were u...

We developed an immunogen to stimulate multivalent immunity against hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and hepatitis B core antigens (HBcAg). Immune responses specific for both HBsAg and HBcAg play an important role in controlling the infection. HBsAg-specific antibodies mediate elimination of virions at an early stage of infection and prevent the spread of virus. The immunogen was constructed...