The recent emergence and rapid response to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 was enabled by prototype pathogen and vaccine platform approaches, driven by the preemptive application of RNA vaccine technology to the related Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus. Recently, the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases identified nine virus families of concern, eight enveloped virus families and one nonenveloped virus family, for which vaccine generation is a priority. Although RNA vaccines have been described for a variety of enveloped viruses, a roadmap for their use against nonenveloped viruses is lacking.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRNA vaccines possess significant clinical promise in counteracting human diseases caused by infectious or cancerous threats. Self-amplifying replicon RNA (repRNA) has been thought to offer the potential for enhanced potency and dose sparing. However, repRNA is a potent trigger of innate immune responses in vivo, which can cause reduced transgene expression and dose-limiting reactogenicity, as highlighted by recent clinical trials.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF(M.tb), a bacterial pathogen that causes tuberculosis disease (TB), exerts an extensive burden on global health. The complex nature of M.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRecent molecular genetic findings on endometriosis and normal endometrium suggest a modified model in which circulating epithelial progenitor or stem cells intended to regenerate uterine endometrium after menstruation may become overreactive and trapped outside the uterus. These trapped epithelium-committed progenitor cells form nascent glands through clonal expansion and recruit polyclonal stromal cells, leading to the establishment of deep infiltrating endometriosis. Once formed, the ectopic tissue becomes subject to immune surveillance, resulting in chronic inflammation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEpithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a key process in embryonic development and has been associated with cancer metastasis and drug resistance. For example, in EGFR mutated non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC), EMT has been associated with acquired resistance to the EGFR inhibitor erlotinib. Moreover, "EGFR-addicted" cancer cell lines induced to undergo EMT become erlotinib-resistant in vitro.
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