Immunoprophylaxis and Therapy Commons^™

Development Of Vaccines And Antivirals Against Zika Virus, Aryamav Pattnaik

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

The re-emergence of Zika virus (ZIKV), an arbovirus, poses a major global human health concern because of its ability to cause congenital abnormalities and neurological diseases. While many candidate vaccines and antiviral drugs are in the developmental pipeline, none have been approved for use against ZIKV infection. This dissertation describes the characterization of one vaccine and two antiviral drug candidates against ZIKV infection. A bacterial ferritin-based nanoparticle vaccine, termed zDIII-F, is designed to display multiple copies of ZIKV E protein domain III on its surface. These stable nanoparticles are shown to induce robust antibody-mediated protection against lethal ZIKV infection in …

Sodium Pyruvate Ameliorates Influenza A Virus Infection In Vitro And In Vivo, Jessica M. Reel

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Pyruvate is produced in duplicate at the end of glycolysis in addition to ATP and NADH. Pyruvate is the metabolite of choice in most cells, whether obtained exogenously or endogenously. Recently we found that the addition of pyruvate’s conjugate base, sodium pyruvate, to cell culture media dampened the immune response to influenza A virus (IAV) infection in cultured innate immune cells. Thus, I decided to investigate the mechanism and potential for treatment of IAV. In vitro using bone marrow derived macrophages that were infected with IAV we found that adding sodium pyruvate to the media decreased immune signaling pathways through …

Elucidating The Role Of Interleukin-17a In West Nile Virus Infection, Dhiraj Acharya

Dissertations

West Nile virus (WNV) is a neurotropic flavivirus of significant public health importance for which no therapeutics and vaccine are currently available. Interleukin-17A (IL-17A) is an inflammatory cytokine that regulates diverse immune functions, while its role is unclear in host’s immune response to WNV. Furthermore, CD8⁺ T cells are crucial components of immunity and play a vital role in recovery from WNV infection. Here, we report a previously unrecognized function of IL-17A in regulating CD8⁺ T cell cytotoxicity. We show that WNV induces the expression of IL-17A in both mouse splenocytes and human peripheral blood mononuclear cells cultured …

Role Of Viral And Host Factors In Influenza Virus Mediated Inhibition Of Interleukin-23, Ashish Tiwari

Theses and Dissertations--Veterinary Science

Influenza virus is one of the major respiratory pathogens of humans as well as animals, including equines. There is an increasing evidence that bacterial infections are the most common cause of the death during influenza. In horses also, secondary bacterial pneumonia can lead to death, and surviving horses may take up to six months for the complete recovery resulting in heavy economic loss to the equine industry. Interleukin (IL)-23 mediated innate immune response has been shown to protect the host from various respiratory bacterial infections. However, studies to investigate the role of host and viral factors in the regulation of …

Construction Of A Live-Attenuated Hiv-1 Vaccine Through Genetic Code Expansion, Nanxi Wang, Yue Li, Wei Niu, Ming Sun, Ronald Cerny, Qingsheng Li, Jiantao Guo

Qingsheng Li Publications

A safe and effective vaccine against human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) is urgently needed to combat the worldwide AIDS pandemic, but still remains elusive. The fact that uncontrolled replication of an attenuated vaccine can lead to regaining of its virulence creates safety concerns precluding many vaccines from clinical application. We introduce a novel approach to control HIV-1 replication, which entails the manipulation of essential HIV-1 protein biosynthesis through unnatural amino acid (UAA*)-mediated suppression of genome-encoded blank codon. We successfully demonstrate that HIV-1 replication can be precisely turned on and off in vitro.

Includes supporting information.