Publications by authors named "J H Malfetano"
The quality of protective immunity plays a critical role in modulating vaccine efficacy, with native antigens often not able to trigger sufficiently strong immune responses for pathogen killing. This warrants creation of structure-based vaccine design, leveraging high-resolution antigen structures for mutagenesis to improve protein stability and efficient immunization strategies. Here, we investigated the mechanisms underlying structure-based vaccine design using CspZ-YA, a vaccine antigen from , the bacteria causing Lyme disease (LD), the most common vector-borne disease in the Northern Hemisphere.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTolerance and resistance are two host eco-immunological strategies in response to microparasite invasion. In the strategy of "resistance", host responses are induced to decrease microparasite replication while the "tolerance" strategy allows hosts coexistence with microparasites by minimizing responses to avoid immune-mediated damage. The causative agent of Lyme disease is a group of genotypically diverse bacterial species, Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (Bb), which is transmitted by Ixodes ticks and persists in different reservoir animals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- Lyme disease (LD), caused by the Lyme borreliae bacteria, is the most prevalent vector-borne illness in the northern hemisphere, with no effective prevention methods currently available.
- The study reveals that chimeric proteins specifically designed to interact with host complement inhibitors can effectively kill Lyme borreliae and reduce related joint inflammation in mice.
- Notably, the research shows that one protein variant (SCR(6-7)-Fc) targets specific Lyme borreliae strains, while another variant (SCR(19-20)-Fc) has a broader effect, killing various bacterial species and highlighting the potential of these constructs as preventive measures against LD.
Objective: To evaluate toxicity, survival, and recurrence-free interval in women with loco-regionally advanced endometrial carcinoma treated with postoperative whole abdominal radiation therapy.
Methods: Whole abdominal irradiation with pelvic plus or minus para-aortic boost was initiated within 8 weeks of total abdominal hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, pelvic washings, and selective pelvic and para-aortic node sampling in eligible, consenting patients.
Results: Of 180 evaluable patients entered on the study with surgically staged III and IV endometrial carcinoma maximally debulked to less than 2 cm, 77 had typical endometrial adenocarcinoma and 103 had high-risk histology, either papillary serous or clear cell carcinoma.
Purpose: Doxorubicin and cisplatin have activity in endometrial carcinoma and at initiation of this study ranked as the most active agents. This trial of stage III, IV, or recurrent disease evaluated whether combining these agents increases response rate (RR) and prolongs progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) over doxorubicin alone.
Patients And Methods: Of 299 patients registered, 281 (94%) were eligible.