Search results for "Immunity"

Antiviral Properties of Chemical Inhibitors of Cellular Anti-Apoptotic Bcl-2 Proteins

2017

Viral diseases remain serious threats to public health because of the shortage of effective means of control. To combat the surge of viral diseases, new treatments are urgently needed. Here we show that small-molecules, which inhibit cellular anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 proteins (Bcl-2i), induced the premature death of cells infected with different RNA or DNA viruses, whereas, at the same concentrations, no toxicity was observed in mock-infected cells. Moreover, these compounds limited viral replication and spread. Surprisingly, Bcl-2i also induced the premature apoptosis of cells transfected with viral RNA or plasmid DNA but not of mock-transfected cells. These results suggest that Bcl-2i sensiti…

A putative antiviral role of plant cytidine deaminases

2014

[Background]: A mechanism of innate antiviral immunity operating against viruses infecting mammalian cells has been described during the last decade. Host cytidine deaminases (e.g., APOBEC3 proteins) edit viral genomes, giving rise to hypermutated nonfunctional viruses; consequently, viral fitness is reduced through lethal mutagenesis. By contrast, sub-lethal hypermutagenesis may contribute to virus evolvability by increasing population diversity. To prevent genome editing, some viruses have evolved proteins that mediate APOBEC3 degradation. The model plant Arabidopsis thaliana genome encodes nine cytidine deaminases ( AtCDAs), raising the question of whether deamination is an antiviral mec…

Gamma interferon blocks gammaherpesvirus reactivation from latency in a cell type-specific manner

2007

Gammaherpesviruses are important pathogens whose lifelong survival in the host depends critically on their capacity to establish and reactivate from latency, processes regulated by both viral genes and the host immune response. Previous work has demonstrated that gamma interferon (IFN-gamma) is a key regulator of chronic infection with murine gammaherpesvirus 68 (gammaHV68), a virus that establishes latent infection in B lymphocytes, macrophages, and dendritic cells. In mice deficient in IFN-gamma or the IFN-gamma receptor, gammaHV68 gene expression is altered during chronic infection, and peritoneal cells explanted from these mice reactivate more efficiently ex vivo than cells derived from…

2017

Summary Objectives Neisseria meningitidis is the major cause of seasonal meningitis epidemics in the African meningitis belt. In the changing context of a reduction in incidence of serogroup A and an increase in incidence of serogroups W and C and of Streptococcus pneumoniae , a better understanding of the determinants driving the disease transmission dynamics remains crucial to improving bacterial meningitis control. Methods The literature was searched to provide a multi-disciplinary overview of the determinants of meningitis transmission dynamics in the African meningitis belt. Results Seasonal hyperendemicity is likely predominantly caused by increased invasion rates, sporadic localized …

The impact of weather on COVID-19 pandemic.

2021

AbstractRising temperature levels during spring and summer are often argued to enable lifting of strict containment measures even in the absence of herd immunity. Despite broad scholarly interest in the relationship between weather and coronavirus spread, previous studies come to very mixed results. To contribute to this puzzle, the paper examines the impact of weather on the COVID-19 pandemic using a unique granular dataset of over 1.2 million daily observations covering over 3700 counties in nine countries for all seasons of 2020. Our results show that temperature and wind speed have a robust negative effect on virus spread after controlling for a range of potential confounding factors. T…

Is COVID-19 a proteiform disease inducing also molecular mimicry phenomena?

2020

Is molecular mimicry the culprit in the autoimmune haemolytic anaemia affecting patients with COVID‐19?

2020

Does dietary salt induce autoimmunity?

2013

Two recent publications suggest that dietary salt may polarize TH17 cells and therefore increase the risk of developing autoimmune disease. Where low salt diets can readily be tested for their therapeutic effects in autoimmune disease, more work is needed to connect dietary salts with the development of immunopathology.

International consequences of the activation of Title III of the Helms Burton Act

2020

In May 2019 the U.S. government activated the Title III of the Helms Burton Act. Title III grants U.S. nationals whose property was expropriated in Cuba after the 1959 revolution a private right of action against those who traffic in their property. The purpose of the thesis is to analyze the legal, political, economic and social consequences of the activation and its incompatibility with international law. The study therefore examines expropriation rights, state immunity from jurisdiction and the extraterritorial application of U.S. laws. Analytical and applied legal research has been conducted by evaluating primary and secondary sources of law such as national legislation, treaties, inter…

Synthetic Polyclonal-Derived CDR Peptides as an Innovative Strategy in Glaucoma Therapy

2019

The pathogenesis of glaucoma is strongly associated with the occurrence of autoimmune-mediated loss of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) and additionally, recent evidence shows that specific antibody-derived signature peptides are significantly differentially expressed in sera of primary-open angle glaucoma patients (POAG) compared to healthy controls. Synthetically antibody-derived peptides can modulate various effector functions of the immune system and act as antimicrobial or antiviral molecules. In an ex vivo adolescent glaucoma model, this study, for the first time, demonstrates that polyclonal-derived complementarity-determining regions (CDRs) can significantly increase the survival rate …