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Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Brigham Young University

Theses and Dissertations

2020

Synthesis

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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Synthesis Of Bacterial Surface Glycans For Conjugate Vaccines, Teron D. Haynie Aug 2020

Synthesis Of Bacterial Surface Glycans For Conjugate Vaccines, Teron D. Haynie

Theses and Dissertations

Bacteria are coated with repeating units of oligosaccharides that exhibit remarkable diversity. Often, glycan units of three or even two sugars are sufficient to identify a species of bacteria. Such specificity makes bacterial surface glycans attractive vaccine targets. However, efforts to create effective vaccines against carbohydrates have been hampered by poor vaccine design as well as the human immune tendency to respond to glycan antigens with non-specific, T-cell independent mechanisms. As a result, carbohydrate vaccines have historically produced only adequate memory responses in healthy individuals and poor responses in the elderly or immunocompromised. To circumvent these issues, a novel conjugate …


Synthesis Of Functionalized Streptococcus Pneumoniae Serotype 6a Di- And Tri- Saccharides, Brady Davis James May 2020

Synthesis Of Functionalized Streptococcus Pneumoniae Serotype 6a Di- And Tri- Saccharides, Brady Davis James

Theses and Dissertations

There is a rise in prevalence of antibiotic resistance in Streptococcus pneumoniae, and its FDA-approved vaccines often do not mount effective immune responses in children, the elderly, or the immunocompromised. One reason these vaccines are generally less effective is because they do not utilize T-cell help. T-cell help can be accessed when di-, tri-, or tetra-saccharides positioned inside major histocompatibility complex (MHC) II are presented to T-cell receptors as a target antigen. Pairing MHC II-antigen complexes with T-cell receptors enables development of B and T lymphocytes that are highly specific to these antigens, granting an increase in antibody affinity and …