Visceral leishmaniasis, caused by Leishmania (L.) donovani and L. infantum protozoan parasites, can provoke overwhelming and protracted epidemics, with high case-fatality rates. An effective vaccine against the disease must rely on the generation of a strong and long-lasting T cell immunity, mediated by CD4+ TH1 and CD8+ T cells. Multi-epitope peptide-based vaccine development is manifesting as...

Integrins can exist in a range of functional states, depending on the cell type and its state of activation. Although the mechanism that controls activity is unknown, it has been suggested that for some integrins, ot chain cytoplasmic domains may exert either a negative effect or no effect on adhesion function. To address this issue for VLA-4 (an ot431 heterodimer), we constructed an & cytoplas...

Molecularly defined vaccine formulations capable of inducing antiviral CD8+ T-cell-specific immunity in a manner compatible with human delivery are limited. Few molecules achieve this target without the support of an appropriate immunological adjuvant. In this study, we investigate the potential of totally synthetic palmitoyl-tailed helper-cytotoxic-T-lymphocyte chimeric epitopes (Th-CTL chimer...

Clostridium botulinum type A (BoNT/A) produces a neurotoxin recently found to be useful as an injectable drug for the treatment of abnormal muscle contractions. The catalytic domain of this toxin which is responsible for the main toxin activity is a zinc metalloprotease that inhibits the release of neurotransmitter mediators in neuromuscular junctions. A cell penetrating cationic peptide, Tat, ...