Ningyi Jin

Since current subunit vaccines are limited by a short half-life in vivo and weak immune responses when used alone without adjuvants, there is an unmet need for combing carriers with complement activation signals to interrupt outbreaks in real-time. Amino-functionalized zirconium-based MOFs (UiO-AM) could activate the complement system, which plays an important role in innate and adaptive immunity. Our data provide design principles for studies on complement activation as a safe vaccine carrier that can effectively enhance immune responses against antigens in vivo.

The effect of the combination of a recombinant adenovirus (ATV) expressing a specific apoptin protein and cisplatin on human lung cancer cells (A549 cells) was determined. The inhibitory effects of ATV and cisplatin, ATV alone, or cisplatin alone on the migration and invasion of A549 cells were evaluated in vitro using cell proliferation, wound healing, Transwell migration and Matrigel invasion assays. The tumor inhibition effect on A549 cells in vivo was assessed by observing the tumor growth and survival rate of nude mice with subcutaneous tumor xenografts grown from implanted A549 cells after treatment with ATV, cisplatin, or ATV combined with cisplatin. The proliferation (P<0.01), migration (P<0.01), and invasion (P<0.01) on A549 cells was suppressed significantly by ATV, cisplatin, and ATV and cisplatin, in a dose‑ and time‑dependent manner. The inhibition of tumor growth in transplanted nude mice in the ATV combined with cisplatin group was significantly higher than that displayed in the other groups, and the survival rate of the combined treatment group was significantly higher than that of the group treated with cisplatin alone. The results indicated that the combined application of ATV and cisplatin could reduce toxicity and showed a synergistic effect in reducing tumor growth and increasing survival. Thus, there is a potential research value in treating tumors using the combination of ATV and cisplatin, which provides a foundation for future preclinical studies on this antitumor treatment.

An HIV candidate vaccine for the Chinese population was designed by constructing a recombinant fowlpox virus expressing HIV-1 gag and HIV gp145 proteins via homologous recombination and plaque screening using enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) as the reporter gene. EGFP in the recombinant was then knocked out with the Cre/Loxp system yielding rFPV_Hg-Hp, which was identified at the genomic, transcriptional and translational levels. The immunogenicity of rFPV_Hg-Hp was analyzed by measuring levels of HIV-specific antibodies and IFN-γ-secreting splenocytes by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and IFN enzyme-linked immune spot test in the BALB/c mouse model. Results showed that rFPV could not stimulate HIV-1 specific antibodies or IFN-γ-secreting cells by a single immunization. Meanwhile, in the prime-boost strategy, HIV-p24 antibodies (P < 0.01) and IFN-γ-secreting cells (P < 0.05) were induced strongly by the candidate vaccine after the boost immunization. Thus, both humoral and cellular immunity could be elicited by the candidate vaccine in a prime-boost immunization strategy. This study provides a foundation for future preclinical studies on the HIV rFPV_Hg-Hp candidate vaccine.

The probiotic properties of two selected lactobacilli strains were assessed.L. salivariusandL. plantarumdisplayed higher hydrophobicity (48% and 54%, resp.) and coaggregation ability with four pathogens (from 7.9% to 57.5%).L. salivariusandL. plantarumhad good inhibitory effects onS. aureus(38.2% and 49.5%, resp.) attachment to Caco-2 cells. Live lactobacilli strains and their conditioned media effectively inhibited IL-8 production (α-induced Caco-2 cells. Antibiotic-treated and the sonicated lactobacilli also maintained inhibitory effects (IL-8 production from 5.0 to 36.3 pg/mL); however, the heat-treated lactobacilli lost their inhibitory effects (IL-8 production from 130.2 to 161.0 pg/mL). These results suggest that both the structural components and the soluble cellular content of lactobacilli have anti-inflammatory effects. We also found that pretreatment of Caco-2 cells with lactobacilli inhibitedS. typhimurium-induced IL-8 production (S. typhimurium. These results suggest that the tested lactobacilli strains are appropriate for preventing inflammatory diseases caused by enteric pathogens but not for therapy. In short,L. salivariusandL. plantarumare potential candidates for the development of microbial ecological agents and functional foods.

This study assessed and compared the immunogenicity of various immunization strategies in mice using combinations of recombinant DNA (pCCMp24) and recombinant attenuated vaccinia virus Tian Tan (rddVTT_-CCMp24). Intramuscular immunization was performed on days 0 (prime) and 21 (boost). The immunogenicity of the vaccine schedules was determined by measuring human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-specific binding antibody levels and cytokine (interleukin-2 and interleukin-4) concentrations in peripheral blood, analyzing lymphocyte proliferation capacity against HIV epitopes and CD4⁺/CD8⁺ cell ratio, and monitoring interferon-gamma levels at different times post-immunization. The results showed that pCCMp24, rddVTT_-CCMp24 and their prime-boost immunization induced humoral and cellular immune responses. The pCCMp24/rddVTT_-CCMp24 immunization strategy increased CD8⁺ T cells and induced more IFN-γ-secreting cells compared with single-shot rDNA. The prime-boost immunization strategy also induced the generation of cellular immunological memory to HIV epitope peptides. These results demonstrated that prime-boost immunization with rDNA and rddVTT_-CCMp24 had a tendency to induce greater cellular immune response than single-shot vaccinations, especially IFN-γ response, providing a basis for further studies.