IL-4 confers resistance to IL-27-mediated suppression on CD4+ T cells by impairing signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 signaling.

Background: TH2 cells play a critical role in the pathogenesis of allergic asthma. Established TH2 cells have been shown to resist reprogramming into TH1 cells. The inherent stability of TH2 cells poses a significant barrier to treating allergic diseases.

Antagonistic regulation by the transcription factors C/EBPα and MITF specifies basophil and mast cell fates.

It remains unclear whether basophils and mast cells are derived from a common progenitor. Furthermore, how basophil versus mast cell fate is specified has not been investigated. Here, we have identified a population of granulocyte-macrophage progenitors (GMPs) that were highly enriched in the capacity to differentiate into basophils and mast cells while retaining a limited capacity to differentiate into myeloid cells.

Mice chronically infected with chimeric HIV resist peripheral and brain superinfection: a model of protective immunity to HIV.

Infection by some viruses induces immunity to reinfection, providing a means to identify protective epitopes. To investigate resistance to reinfection in an animal model of HIV disease and its control, we employed infection of mice with chimeric HIV, EcoHIV. When immunocompetent mice were infected by intraperitoneal (IP) injection of EcoHIV, they resisted subsequent secondary infection by IP injection, consistent with a systemic antiviral immune response.

Protective efficacy of serially up-ranked subdominant CD8+ T cell epitopes against virus challenges.

Immunodominance in T cell responses to complex antigens like viruses is still incompletely understood. Some data indicate that the dominant responses to viruses are not necessarily the most protective, while other data imply that dominant responses are the most important. The issue is of considerable importance to the rational design of vaccines, particularly against variable escaping viruses like human immunodeficiency virus type 1 and hepatitis C virus.

Novel HIV-1 clade B candidate vaccines designed for HLA-B*5101(+) patients protected mice against chimaeric ecotropic HIV-1 challenge.

Novel candidate HIV-1 vaccines have been constructed, which are tailor-designed for HLA-B*5101(+) patients infected with HIV-1 clade B. These vaccines employ novel immunogen HIVB-B*5101 derived from consensus HIV-1 clade B Gag p17 and p24 regions coupled to two Pol-derived B*5101-restricted epitopes, which are together with a third B*5101 epitope in Gag dominant in HIV-1-infected long-term non-progressing patients. Both plasmid DNA and modified vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA) vectors supported high expression levels of the HIVB-B*5101 immunogen in cultured cells.