Vaccine therapy for P. acnes-associated diseases.

Recent studies have afforded abundant evidences showing that Propionibacterium acnes (P. acnes) is involved not only in acne vulgaris, but also in many diseases, including endocarditis, endophthalmitis, osteomyelitis, joint, nervous system, cranial neurosurgery infections, and implanted biomaterial contamination. In spite of a range of P.

Inactivation and purification of cowpea mosaic virus-like particles displaying peptide antigens from Bacillus anthracis.

Chimeric cowpea mosaic virus (CPMV) particles displaying foreign peptide antigens on the particle surface are suitable for development of peptide-based vaccines. However, commonly used PEG precipitation-based purification methods are not sufficient for production of high quality vaccine candidates because they do not allow for separation of chimeric particles from cleaved contaminating species. Moreover, the purified particles remain infectious to plants.

Expression and self-assembly of cowpea chlorotic mottle virus-like particles in Pseudomonas fluorescens.

Coat protein of the cowpea chlorotic mottle virus (CCMV), a plant bromovirus, has been expressed in a soluble form in a prokaryote, Pseudomonas fluorescens, and assembled into virus-like particles (VLPs) in vivo that were structurally similar to the native CCMV particles derived from plants. The CCMV VLPs were purified by PEG precipitation followed by separation on a sucrose density gradient and analyzed by size exclusion chromatography, UV spectrometry, and transmission electron microscopy. DNA microarray experiments revealed that the VLPs encapsulated very large numbers of different host RNAs in a non-specific manner.

Development of a plant viral-vector-based gene expression assay for the screening of yeast cytochrome p450 monooxygenases.

Development of a gene discovery tool for heterologously expressed cytochrome P450 monooxygenases has been inherently difficult. The activity assays are labor-intensive and not amenable to parallel screening. Additionally, biochemical confirmation requires coexpression of a homologous P450 reductase or complementary heterologous activity.

Simplified, rapid method for cloning of virus-binding polypeptides (putative receptors) via the far-western screening of a cDNA expression library using purified virus particles.

A simplified, alternative method for cloning virus-binding polypeptides (receptor candidates) is described. The method is based on a far-Western assay using purified tomato spotted wilt tospovirus (TSWV, Bunyaviridae) for screening a lambda-phage cDNA expression library. The western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis Pergande, the principal vector of TSWV, in which the virus replicates, was used for library construction.