Search results for " class"
showing 10 items of 3720 documents
Immunodominant Cytomegalovirus Epitopes Suppress Subdominant Epitopes in the Generation of High-Avidity CD8 T Cells
2021
CD8+ T-cell responses to pathogens are directed against infected cells that present pathogen-encoded peptides on MHC class-I molecules. Although natural responses are polyclonal, the spectrum of peptides that qualify for epitopes is remarkably small even for pathogens with high coding capacity. Among those few that are successful at all, a hierarchy exists in the magnitude of the response that they elicit in terms of numbers of CD8+ T cells generated. This led to a classification into immunodominant and non-immunodominant or subordinate epitopes, IDEs and non-IDEs, respectively. IDEs are favored in the design of vaccines and are chosen for CD8+ T-cell immunotherapy. Using murine cytomegalov…
Insufficient Antigen Presentation Due to Viral Immune Evasion Explains Lethal Cytomegalovirus Organ Disease After Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Trans…
2020
Reactivation of latent cytomegalovirus (CMV) poses a clinical problem in transiently immunocompromised recipients of hematopoietic cell (HC) transplantation (HCT) by viral histopathology that results in multiple organ manifestations. Compared to autologous HCT and to syngeneic HCT performed with identical twins as HC donor and recipient, lethal outcome of CMV infection is more frequent in allogeneic HCT with MHC/HLA or minor histocompatibility loci mismatch between donor and recipient. It is an open question if a graft-versus-host (GvH) reaction exacerbates CMV disease, or if CMV exacerbates GvH disease (GvHD), or if interference is mutual. Here we have used a mouse model of experimental HC…
NOD-like receptors: major players (and targets) in the interface between innate immunity and cancer
2019
Innate immunity comprises several inflammation-related modulatory pathways which receive signals from an array of membrane-bound and cytoplasmic pattern recognition receptors (PRRs). The NLRs (NACHT (NAIP (neuronal apoptosis inhibitor protein), C2TA (MHC class 2 transcription activator), HET-E (incompatibility locus protein from Podospora anserina) and TP1 (telomerase-associated protein) and Leucine-Rich Repeat (LRR) domain containing proteins) relate to a large family of cytosolic innate receptors, involved in detection of intracellular pathogens and endogenous byproducts of tissue injury. These receptors may recognize pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) and/or danger-associated…
Alignment Free Dissimilarities for Nucleosome Classification
2016
Epigenetic mechanisms such as nucleosome positioning, histone modifications and DNA methylation play an important role in the regulation of cell type-specific gene activities, yet how epigenetic patterns are established and maintained remains poorly understood. Recent studies have shown a role of DNA sequences in recruitment of epigenetic regulators. For this reason, the use of more suitable similarities or dissimilarity between DNA sequences could help in the context of epigenetic studies. In particular, alignment-free dissimilarities have already been successfully applied to identify distinct sequence features that are associated with epigenetic patterns and to predict epigenomic profiles…
Melanoma-Nevus Discrimination Based on Image Statistics in Few Spectral Channels
2016
The purpose of this paper is to offer a method for discrimination of cutaneous melanoma from benign nevus, founded on analysis of skin lesion image. At the core of method is calculation of mean and standard deviation of pixel optical density values for a few narrow spectral bands. Calculated values are compared with discriminating thresholds derived from a set of images of benign nevi and melanomas with known diagnosis. Classification is done applying weighted majority rule to results of thresholding. Verification against the available multispectral images of 32 melanomas and 94 benign nevi has shown that the method using three spectral bands provided zero false negative and four false posi…
Human leukocyte antigen-E mismatch is associated with better hematopoietic stem cell transplantation outcome in acute leukemia patients
2017
The immunomodulatory role of human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-E in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) has not been extensively investigated. To this end, we genotyped 509 10/10 HLA unrelated transplant pairs for HLA-E, in order to study the effect of HLA-E as a natural killer (NK)-alloreactivity mediator on HSCT outcome in an acute leukemia (AL) setting. Overall survival (OS), disease free survival (DFS), relapse incidence (RI) and non-relapse mortality (NRM) were set as endpoints. Analysis of our data revealed a significant correlation between HLA-E mismatch and improved HSCT outcome, as shown by both univariate (53% vs. 38%, P=0.002, 5-year OS) and multivariate (hazard ratio (HR)…
Dominant Tree Species and Soil Type Affect the Fungal Community Structure in a Boreal Peatland Forest
2016
ABSTRACT Boreal peatlands play a crucial role in global carbon cycling, acting as an important carbon reservoir. However, little information is available on how peatland microbial communities are influenced by natural variability or human-induced disturbances. In this study, we have investigated the fungal diversity and community structure of both the organic soil layer and buried wood in boreal forest soils using high-throughput sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region. We have also compared the fungal communities during the primary colonization of wood with those of the surrounding soils. A permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) confirmed that the co…
Effect of dietary interventions during weaning period on parental practice and lipoproteins and vitamin D status in two-year-old children
2016
ABSTRACT Objective: Evaluate if a two-day course for parents on nutrition and applied baby food preparation had an effect on child’s intake of home-made foods, lipid concentration, and vitamin D status. Design: Randomized controlled trial at age 6 months and follow-up at ages 15 and 24 months. Setting: Four health care clinics in Kristiansand, Norway. Subjects: Thirty-nine pairs of 6-month-old children and their parents in the intervention group and 20 pairs in the control group. Results: At age 15 months, the intervention group had lower intakes of ready-made porridge (2.0 vs. 5.8 servings per week (p < 0.05)), lower intake of canned baby food (2.9 vs. 6.3 servings per week (p < 0.05)) and…
Changes in life expectancy for cancer patients over time since diagnosis
2019
Highlights • Research question: how cancer impacts on LE changes during patients’ entire life • LE increased in patients surviving the first years and decreasing thereafter. • Patients’ LE in the end approached but seldom reached the general population’s LE. • This method describes when cancer survivors’ excess risk of death became negligible. • Life expectancy indicator is easy to be understood and interpreted by patients.
Socioeconomic factors and severity of periodontal disease in adults (35-44 years). A cross sectional study
2017
Background Periodontal disease or periodontitis is an inflammatory disease with a hight prevalence. According to the last oral health survey of the Spanish population, between 24% and 37% of Spaniards aged over 35 years have periodontitis and 6% to 10% of the adult population have deep periodontal pockets. The aim of this study was to determine the association between risk factors and the presence of periodontal pockets in the adult population. Material and methods A cross sectional or prevalence study of a representative sample of the adult population of the Valencia region was designed. The sample was recruited at 35 health centres, The study was conducted in November and December 2006 un…