Ethics of a partially effective dengue vaccine: Lessons from the Philippines.

Dengvaxia, a chimeric yellow fever tetravalent dengue vaccine developed by SanofiPasteur is widely licensed in dengue-endemic countries. In a large cohort study Dengvaxia was found to partially protect children who had prior dengue virus (DENV) infections but sensitized seronegative children to breakthrough DENV disease of enhanced severity. In 2019, the European Medicines Agency and the US FDA issued licenses that reconciled safety issues by restricting vaccine to individuals with prior dengue infections.

Stability of neuraminidase in inactivated influenza vaccines.

Influenza vaccines are effective in protecting against illness and death caused by this seasonal pathogen. Antibodies that block the function of either hemagglutinin (HA) or neuraminidase (NA) contribute to vaccine efficacy, however vaccine potency is based only on HA content. NA protein content in vaccines varies from season to season due to differences in the relative amounts of HA and NA in influenza A, H1N1 and H3N2, and influenza B viruses that are selected for each manufacturing campaign.

Protein-protein interactions among West Nile non-structural proteins and transmembrane complex formation in mammalian cells.

To study the membrane orientation of flavivirus non-structural proteins (NSPs) in the replication complex, the seven major West Nile (WN) NSPs were separately expressed in monkey cells, and their subcellular localization was investigated by imaging-based techniques. First, we observed by confocal microscopy that four small transmembrane proteins (TP) (NS2A, NS2B, NS4A, and NS4B) were located to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), whereas the largest NSPs, NS1, NS3, and NS5 were not. We then analyzed the colocalization and the association of WN NSPs using the methods of confocal microscopy, fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET), and biologic fluorescence complementation (BiFC).

Influenza neuraminidase-inhibiting antibodies are induced in the presence of zanamivir.

Seasonal influenza epidemics cause illness and death each year, and the emergence of antigenically novel influenza A viruses are a continual pandemic threat. Disease and death can be averted by vaccination. The potency of killed virus vaccines is based on hemagglutinin (HA) content.