Modeling Diffusive Search by Non-Adaptive Sperm: Empirical and Computational Insights.

During fertilization, mammalian sperm undergo a winnowing selection process that reduces the candidate pool of potential fertilizers from ~10-10 cells to 10-10 cells (depending on the species). Classical sperm competition theory addresses the positive or 'stabilizing' selection acting on sperm phenotypes within populations of organisms but does not strictly address the developmental consequences of sperm traits among individual organisms that are under purifying selection during fertilization. It is the latter that is of utmost concern for improving assisted reproductive technologies (ART) because 'low fitness' sperm may be inadvertently used for fertilization during interventions that rely heavily on artificial sperm selection, such as intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).

Effective Respiratory CD8 T-Cell Immunity to Influenza Virus Induced by Intranasal Carbomer-Lecithin-Adjuvanted Non-replicating Vaccines.

CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) are critical for clearing many viral infections, and protective CTL memory can be induced by vaccination with attenuated viruses and vectors. Non-replicating vaccines are typically potentiated by the addition of adjuvants that enhance humoral responses, however few are capable of generating CTL responses. Adjuplex is a carbomer-lecithin-based adjuvant demonstrated to elicit robust humoral immunity to non-replicating antigens.

The Carbomer-Lecithin Adjuvant Adjuplex Has Potent Immunoactivating Properties and Elicits Protective Adaptive Immunity against Influenza Virus Challenge in Mice.

The continued discovery and development of adjuvants for vaccine formulation are important to safely increase potency and/or reduce the antigen doses of existing vaccines and tailor the adaptive immune response to newly developed vaccines. Adjuplex is a novel adjuvant platform based on a purified lecithin and carbomer homopolymer. Here, we analyzed the adjuvant activity of Adjuplex in mice for the soluble hemagglutinin (HA) glycoprotein of influenza A virus.

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 elite neutralizers: individuals with broad and potent neutralizing activity identified by using a high-throughput neutralization assay together with an analytical selection algorithm.

The development of a rapid and efficient system to identify human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)-infected individuals with broad and potent HIV-1-specific neutralizing antibody responses is an important step toward the discovery of critical neutralization targets for rational AIDS vaccine design. In this study, samples from HIV-1-infected volunteers from diverse epidemiological regions were screened for neutralization responses using pseudovirus panels composed of clades A, B, C, and D and circulating recombinant forms (CRFs). Initially, 463 serum and plasma samples from Australia, Rwanda, Uganda, the United Kingdom, and Zambia were screened to explore neutralization patterns and selection ranking algorithms.

Antigen-driven C-C chemokine-mediated HIV-1 suppression by CD4(+) T cells from exposed uninfected individuals expressing the wild-type CCR-5 allele.

Despite repeated exposure to HIV-1, certain individuals remain persistently uninfected. Such exposed uninfected (EU) people show evidence of HIV-1-specific T cell immunity and, in rare cases, selective resistance to infection by macrophage-tropic strains of HIV-1. The latter has been associated with a 32-base pair deletion in the C-C chemokine receptor gene CCR-5, the major coreceptor of macrophage-tropic strains of HIV-1.