Owing to the limitations of traditional Bacillus Calmette-Guerin vaccines and the low efficacy of DNA vaccines expressing single antigens of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, there is a pressing requirement for adjuvants capable of strengthing the immunogenicity and effectiveness of these vaccines against tuberculosis (TB). T-bet (TBX21) is a transcription factor, which controls the optimal developme...

T-bet and GATA3 regulate the CD4+ T cell Th1/Th2 cell fate decision but little is known about the interplay between these factors outside of the murine Ifng and Il4/Il5/Il13 loci. Here we show that T-bet and GATA3 bind to multiple distal sites at immune regulatory genes in human effector T cells. These sites display markers of functional elements, act as enhancers in reporter assays and are ass...

Although evidence suggests that T cells are critical for immunity to malaria, reliable T cell correlates of exposure to and protection from malaria among children living in endemic areas are lacking. We used multiparameter flow cytometry to perform a detailed functional characterization of malaria-specific T cells in 78 four-year-old children enrolled in a longitudinal cohort study in Tororo, U...

Abstract Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease associated with abnormal activation of immune cells. Regulatory B (Breg) cells are a cell subset that negatively regulate responses via secretion immunoregulatory cytokines interleukin (IL)-10, IL-35, and transforming growth factor (TGF)-β. We had previously shown in lupus-prone MRL/lpr mice, pre-disease Breg were more potent ...

Numerous studies have examined the association between pharmacogenetic effects and the response to inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) in patients with asthma. In fact, several single nucleotide polymorphisms of a number of candidate genes have been identified that might influence the clinical response to ICS in children with asthma. Their direct or indirect effects depend on their role in the inflam...

Experienced T cells exhibit immunological memory via a rapid recall response, responding to restimulation much faster than naïve T cells. The formation of immunological memory starts during an initial slow response, when naïve T cells become transformed to proliferating T blast cells, and inducible immune response genes are reprogrammed as active chromatin domains. We demonstrated that these ac...

Paracoccidioidomycosis (PCM), caused by Paracoccidioides species is a prevalent systemic and progressive mycosis that occurs in Latin America. It is caused by Paracoccidioides species. Immunization with dendritic cells transfected with a plasmid encoding the scFv (pMAC/PS-scFv) that mimics the main antigen of P. brasiliensis (gp43) confers protection in experimental PCM. DCs link innate and ada...

Aspirin intolerant asthma (AIA) is frequently characterized as an aspirin (ASA)-exacerbated respiratory disease (AERD). It is a clinical syndrome associated with chronic severe inflammation in the upper and lower airways resulting in chronic rhinitis, sinusitis, recurrent polyposis, and asthma. AERD generally develops secondary to abnormalities in inflammatory mediators and arachidonic acid bio...

Jagged-1 signaling has recently been reported to be involved in the Th17 cell differentiation. However, little is known about its mechanisms. Soluble Jagged-1 was used to activate the Jagged-1-Notch signaling to interfere with the IL-6 and TGF-β-induced Th17 cell skewing. Genes relevant to the autoimmunity or inflammation were screened for the first time in this system by qPCR array for the dif...

Glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3) facilitates interferon (IFN)-γ signaling. Because IFN-γ is involved in inflammatory skin diseases, such as psoriasis, the aim of this study was to investigate the pathogenic role of GSK-3 in 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA)-induced IFN-γ-mediated ear skin inflammation. TPA (3 μg per ear) induced acute skin inflammation in the ears of C57BL/6 mice, in...