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Immunology and Infectious Disease Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Immunology and Infectious Disease

Prevalence Of Sars-Cov-2 Antibodies In Liberty University Student Population, Emily Bonus Apr 2023

Prevalence Of Sars-Cov-2 Antibodies In Liberty University Student Population, Emily Bonus

Senior Honors Theses

In 2020, the virus SARS-CoV-2 gained attention as it spread around the world. Its antibodies are poorly understood, and little research focuses on those with few COVID-19 complications yet large numbers of close contacts: university students. This longitudinal study recorded SARS-CoV-2 antibody presence in 107 undergraduate Liberty University students twice during early 2021. After extensive data cleaning and the application of various statistical tests and ANOVAs, the data seems to show that in the case of COVID-19 infections, SARS-CoV-2 IgM antibodies are immediately produced, and then IgG antibodies follow later. However, the COVID-19 vaccine causes the production of both IgM …


Antibody-Dependent Enhancement Activity Of A Plant-Made Vaccine Against West Nile Virus, Amber M. Paul, Haiyan Sun, Dhiraj Acharya, Huafang Lai, Junyun He, Fengwei Bai, Qiang Chen Jan 2023

Antibody-Dependent Enhancement Activity Of A Plant-Made Vaccine Against West Nile Virus, Amber M. Paul, Haiyan Sun, Dhiraj Acharya, Huafang Lai, Junyun He, Fengwei Bai, Qiang Chen

Publications

West Nile virus (WNV) causes annual outbreaks globally and is the leading cause of mosquito-borne disease in Unite States. In the absence of licensed therapeutics, there is an urgent need to develop effective and safe human vaccines against WNV. One of the major safety concerns for WNV vaccine development is the risk of increasing infection by related flaviviruses in vaccinated subjects via antibody-dependent enhancement of infection (ADE). Herein, we report the development of a plant-based vaccine candidate that provides protective immunity against a lethal WNV challenge mice, while minimizes the risk of ADE for infection by Zika (ZIKV) and dengue …


The Psychology Of Science Denialism And Lessons For Public Health Authorities, Brenna Moreno, Molly J. Walker Wilson Jan 2023

The Psychology Of Science Denialism And Lessons For Public Health Authorities, Brenna Moreno, Molly J. Walker Wilson

All Faculty Scholarship

As it wreaked tragedy on the world, the outbreak of COVID-19 helped expose a pandemic of a different kind, one steeped in distrust and contrarianism. This movement, termed science denialism, has been lurking and undermining public health efforts for decades. Specifically, it is “the employment of rhetorical arguments to give the appearance of legitimate debate where there is none, an approach that has the ultimate goal of rejecting a proposition on which a scientific consensus exists.” Unlike skepticism, which is “doubt as to the truth of something” and works to progress both science and society, denialism is characterized by individuals’ …


Transcriptomic Analysis Of Liver Indicates Novel Vaccine To Porcine Reproductive And Respiratory Virus Promotes Homeostasis In T-Cell And Inflammatory Immune Responses Compared To A Commercial Vaccine In Pigs, Damarius S. Fleming, Laura C. Miller, Jiuyi Li, Albert Van Geelen, Yongming Sang Mar 2022

Transcriptomic Analysis Of Liver Indicates Novel Vaccine To Porcine Reproductive And Respiratory Virus Promotes Homeostasis In T-Cell And Inflammatory Immune Responses Compared To A Commercial Vaccine In Pigs, Damarius S. Fleming, Laura C. Miller, Jiuyi Li, Albert Van Geelen, Yongming Sang

Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Faculty Research

One of the largest impediments for commercial swine production is the presence of Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus (PRRSV), a devastating RNA viral infection that is responsible for over $1 billion in loss in the U.S. annually. The challenge with combating PRRSV is a combination of the effect of an extraordinary rate of mutation, the ability to infect macrophages, and subversion of host immune response through a series of actions leading to both immunomodulation and immune evasion. Currently there are a handful of commercial vaccines on the market that have been shown to be effective against homologous infections, but …


Moraxella Species Associated With Infectious Bovine Keratoconjunctivitis: Detection, Characterization, And Immunity, Matthew M. Hille Nov 2021

Moraxella Species Associated With Infectious Bovine Keratoconjunctivitis: Detection, Characterization, And Immunity, Matthew M. Hille

School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Infectious bovine keratoconjunctivitis (IBK) represents the most common ocular disease of cattle. Moraxella bovis (M. bovis) is the only bacteria proven to cause IBK under experimental conditions. A closely related bacteria, Moraxella bovoculi (M. bovoculi) is cultured from IBK lesions more frequently than M. bovis, and is suspected to cause IBK, although a causal relationship between M. bovoculi and IBK has not been confirmed experimentally. Two distinct genotypes were recently characterized in M. bovoculi based on whole genome sequencing. Genotype 1 M. bovoculi appears to represent a potential pathogen whereas genotype 2 M. bovoculi appears …


Why The Government Shouldn't Pay People To Get Vaccinated Against Covid-19, Ana Santos Rutschman Jan 2020

Why The Government Shouldn't Pay People To Get Vaccinated Against Covid-19, Ana Santos Rutschman

All Faculty Scholarship

As several pharmaceutical companies approach the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seeking authorization to bring COVID-19 vaccines to market, concerns about vaccine mistrust cloud the prospects of imminent vaccination efforts across the globe. These concerns have prompted some commentators to suggest that governments may nudge vaccine uptake by paying people to get vaccinated against COVID-19. This post argues that, even if potentially viable, this idea is undesirable against the backdrop of a pandemic marked by the intertwined phenomena of health misinformation and mistrust in public health authorities. Even beyond the context of COVID-19, paying for vaccination is likely to remain …


Hiv Vaccines: Progress, Limitations And A Crispr/Cas9 Vaccine, Omar A. Garcia Martinez May 2016

Hiv Vaccines: Progress, Limitations And A Crispr/Cas9 Vaccine, Omar A. Garcia Martinez

Biology: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

ABSTRACT: The HIV-1 pandemic continues to thrive due to ineffective HIV-1 vaccines. Historically, the world’s most infectious diseases, such as polio and smallpox, have been eradicated or have come close to eradication due to the advent of effective vaccines. Highly active antiretroviral therapy is able to delay the onset of AIDS but can neither rid the body of HIV-1 proviral DNA nor prevent further transmission. A prophylactic vaccine that prevents the various mechanisms HIV-1 has to evade and attack our immune system is needed to end the HIV-1 pandemic. Recent advances in engineered nuclease systems, like the CRISPR/Cas9 system, have …


Immunoproteomic Analysis Of Proteins Expressed By Two Related Pathogens, Burkholderia Multivorans And Burkholderia Cenocepacia, During Human Infection., Minu Shinoy, Ruth Dennehy, Lorraine Coleman, Stephen Carberru, Kirsten Schaffer, Máire Callaghan, Sean Doyle, Siobhan Mcclean Nov 2013

Immunoproteomic Analysis Of Proteins Expressed By Two Related Pathogens, Burkholderia Multivorans And Burkholderia Cenocepacia, During Human Infection., Minu Shinoy, Ruth Dennehy, Lorraine Coleman, Stephen Carberru, Kirsten Schaffer, Máire Callaghan, Sean Doyle, Siobhan Mcclean

Articles

Burkholderia cepacia complex (Bcc) is an opportunistic bacterial pathogen that causes chronic infections in people with cystic fibrosis (CF). It is a highly antibiotic resistant organism and Bcc infections are rarely cleared from patients, once they are colonized. The two most clinically relevant species within Bcc are Burkholderia cenocepacia and Burkholderia multivorans. The virulence of these pathogens has not been fully elucidated and the virulence proteins expressed during human infection have not been identified to date. Furthermore, given its antibiotic resistance, prevention of infection with a prophylactic vaccine may represent a better alternative than eradication of an existing infection. We …