Flu Universal Vaccines: New Tricks on an Old Virus

Conventional influenza vaccines are based on predicting the circulating viruses year by year, conferring limited effectiveness since the antigenicity of vaccine strains does not always match the circulating viruses. This necessitates development of universal influenza vaccines that provide broader and lasting protection against pan-influenza viruses. The discovery of the highly conserved immunogens(epitopes) of influenza viruses provides attractive targets for universal vaccine design. Here we review the current understanding with broadly protective immunogens(epitopes) and discuss several important considerations to achieve the goal of universal influenza vaccines.     

Activating p38 MAPK: New Tricks for an Old Kinase

Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) participate in signaling initiated by a wide variety of extracellular stimuli. MAPKs are most commonly activated by a series of phosphorylation events in which one kinase phosphorylates another, the “MAPK cascade”. The cascade concludes with the dual phosphorylation of MAPKs on a conserved Thr-X-Tyr motif. In the case of the p38 MAPK, an exception to this paradigm has been found when signaling via the T cell antigen receptor (TCR). Rather than trigger the MAPK cascade, TCR-mediated stimulation activates proximal tyrosine kinases, which results in the phosphorylation of p38 on a noncanonical activating residue, Tyr-323. This phosphorylation activates p38 to phosphorylate third party substrates as well as its own Thr-X-Tyr motif. Here we discuss the structural and functional implications of this alternative p38 activation pathway, which may provide a new target for tissue-specific pharmacologic inhibition.     

流感病毒的分子生物学研究进展

流感病毒是分节段的负链RNA病毒,由RNA依赖的RNA聚合酶起始病毒的复制。流感病毒的特殊基因组结构和病毒蛋白的功能使其极易发生抗原转换和抗原漂移,这使得病毒能够逃避多种宿主的长效中和性免疫反应。本文从病毒结构、基因组及其编码蛋白质、病毒复制过程和病毒的易感宿主等几方面论述了流感病毒的分子生物学研究进展。     

Radial Glial Cells: New Views on Old Questions

Neurochemical Research - Radial glial cells (RGC) are at the center of brain development in vertebrates, acting as progenitors for neurons and macroglia (oligodendrocytes and astrocytes) and as...     

猪源性甲型H1N1流感病毒研究概况

2009年3月在美国和墨西哥流感样患者的呼吸道标本中鉴定出新的猪源性甲型H1N1流感病毒。该病毒可人-人传播,已蔓延到112个国家和地区。为了遏制不断重组或重配的流感病毒,各国学者对甲型H1N1流感病毒的分子生物学特征、复制周期及实验室诊断做了细致的研究,以研发相应的药物或疫苗,这些成就为世界各国防控今年新鉴定的猪源性甲型H1N1流感病毒感染发挥了重要作用。现就猪源性甲型H1N1流感病毒的鉴定、基因组结构特征做一综述。     

Structure of Desert Rodent Communities: A Critical Review of Questions and Approaches

Three attributes of communities—the number, relative abundances,and phenotypic attributes of coexisting species—togetherdefine their "structure," as the term has been used in the literature.Most ecologists have tried to uncover determinants of communitystructure by analyzing patterns of morphology or resource use,or by experimentally manipulating the species composition orenvironmental context of communities. Less often used is a mechanisticanalysis of processes operating at the level of individualsor populations. I discuss the logical basis for each of these approaches andillustrate their virtues and limitations with examples drawnfrom work on heteromyid rodents. While pattern analytic andexperimental approaches have provided an efficient means ofidentifying proximate determinants of species number and relativeabundance, a mechanistic approach holds more promise for answeringquestions about the ultimate determinants of phenotypic patternswithin communities     

Developing New Methods to Answer Old and New Questions in Neurodegenerative Diseases

The HUPO Brain Proteome Project (HUPO BPP) held its 21^st workshop in Honolulu, Hawaii. During the 23–24 January 2014 the island became the center of the open workshop of the scientific community.     

New Insights into an Old Organelle: Meeting Report on Biology of Cilia and Flagella

The rising interest of the scientific community in cilia biology was evident from the fact that registration for the third FASEB conference on ‘The Biology of Cilia and Flagella’ closed out before the early bird deadline. Cilia and flagella are organelles of profound medical importance; defects in their structure or function result in a plethora of human diseases called ciliopathies. 240 clinicians and basic scientists from around the world gathered from 23 June 2013 to 28 June 2013 at Sheraton at the Falls, Niagara Falls, NY to present and discuss their research on this intensely studied subcellular structure. The meeting was organized by Gregory Pazour (University of Massachusetts Medical School), Bradley Yoder (University of Alabama‐Birmingham), and Maureen Barr (Rutgers University) and was sponsored by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB). Here, we report highlights, points of discussion, and emerging themes from this exciting meeting.     

A Human CD4+ T Cell Epitope in the Influenza Hemagglutinin Is Cross-Reactive to Influenza A Virus Subtypes and to Influenza B Virus

The hemagglutinin protein (HA) of the influenza virus family is a major antigen for protective immunity. Thus, it is a relevant target for developing vaccines. Here, we describe a human CD4(+) T cell epitope in the influenza virus HA that lies in the fusion peptide of the HA. This epitope is well conserved in all 16 subtypes of the HA protein of influenza A virus and the HA protein of influenza B virus. By stimulating peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from a healthy adult donor with peptides covering the entire HA protein based on the sequence of A/Japan/305/1957 (H2N2), we generated a T cell line specific to this epitope. This CD4(+) T cell line recognizes target cells infected with influenza A virus seasonal H1N1 and H3N2 strains, a reassortant H2N1 strain, the 2009 pandemic H1N1 strain, and influenza B virus in cytotoxicity assays and intracellular-cytokine-staining assays. It also lysed target cells infected with avian H5N1 virus. We screened healthy adult PBMCs for T cell responses specific to this epitope and found individuals who had ex vivo gamma interferon (IFN-γ) responses to the peptide epitope in enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) assays. Almost all donors who responded to the epitope had the HLA-DRB1*09 allele, a relatively common HLA allele. Although natural infection or standard vaccination may not induce strong T and B cell responses to this highly conserved epitope in the fusion peptide, it may be possible to develop a vaccination strategy to induce these CD4(+) T cells, which are cross-reactive to both influenza A and B viruses.     

甲型流感病毒RNA聚合酶——抗病毒药物靶点

甲型流感病毒的RNA聚合酶由PB1、PB2和PA 三个亚基组成,在病毒的生命周期中负责行使病毒基因组的转录与复制等多方面功能. 甲型流感病毒由于频繁变异,导致其对传统抗病毒药物的敏感性降低,因此开发疗效好、针对性强、毒性低的新型抗病毒药物已成为当前亟待解决的问题.由于RNA聚合酶是甲型流感病毒生命周期重要的调控蛋白,并且编码聚合酶各亚基的基因序列具有高度保守性,故成为当前抗病毒药物的重要靶点.     

Functional Significance of Sialidase During Influenza Virus Multiplication: an Electron Microscope Study

Morphological evidence has been obtained by electron microscopy in support of previous findings that one of the most important functions of sialidase is associated with the release of virus from infected host cells. Highly specific antiserum against fowl plague virus enzyme and specific antiserum against X7 recombinant influenza virus enzyme were shown to influence the morphology of cells infected with their homologous virus. In the presence of enzyme antiserum, an accumulation and aggregation of virus particles were evident on the cell surface and in the extracellular space of infected host cells. The aggregation of virus particles was interpreted to result from the inhibition of the release of virus.     

Proteotyping：A New Approach Studying Influenza Virus Evolution at the Protein Level

Phylogenetic methods have been widely used to detect the evolution of influenza viruses.However,previous phylogenetic studies of influenza viruses do not make full use of the genetic information at the protein level and therefore cannot distinguish the subtle differences among viral genes.Proteotyping is a new approach to study influenza virus evolution.It aimed at mining the potential genetic information of the viral gene at the protein level by visualizing unique amino acid signatures(proteotypes).Neuraminidase gene fragments of some H5N1 avian influenza viruses were used as an example to illustrate how the proteotyping method worked.Bayesian analysis confirmed that the NA gene tree was mainly divided into three lineages.The NA proteotype analysis further suggested there might be multiple proteotypes within these three lineages and even within single genotypes.At the same time,some proteotypes might even involve more than one genotype.In particular,it also discovered some amino acids of viruses of some genotypes might co-reassort.All these results proved this approach could provide additional information in contrast to results from standard phylogenetic tree analysis.     

人工构建单细胞生物: 合成生物学新的里程碑

<正>2010年5月20日,一项用合成基因组制造支原体细胞的研究成果在《Sciences》上发表[1],该成果由美国克雷格·文特研究所(The J Craig Venter Institute)丹尼尔·吉布森(Daniel G Gibson)领导的研究小组完成。他们