Demographic and seasonal characteristics of respiratory pathogens in neonates and infants aged 0 to 12 months in the Central-East region of Tunisia.

Background: This study aimed to characterize the epidemiology of pathogenic respiratory agents in patients aged 0 to 12 months and hospitalized for acute respiratory infections in Tunisia between 2013 and 2014.

Methods: A total of 20 pathogens, including viruses, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, and Streptococcus pneumoniae, were detected using molecular sensitive assays, and their associations with the patient's demographic data and season were analyzed.

Results: Viral infectious agents were found in 449 (87.

Measurements of HCV neutralizing antibodies and of HCV-specific CD4+ and CD8+ cells using hepatitis C virus pseudo-particles (HCVpp).

Background: For the medical management, it would be of great relevance to get a diagnostic marker predicting the outcome of infection.

Objectives: For this purpose, the envelope antigens of the individual HCV strain in a patient was tested for their capacity to induce neutralizing antibodies and cytotoxic T lymphocytes.

Study Design: A system for the measurement of neutralizing antibodies as well as for the stimulation of a HCV-specific T-cell response using pseudo-typed HCV particles (HCVpp) was established.

Foamy virus vectors expressing anti-HIV transgenes efficiently block HIV-1 replication.

Gene therapy has the potential to control human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in patients who do not respond to traditional antiviral therapy. In this study, we tested foamy virus (FV) vectors expressing three anti-HIV transgenes, both individually and in a combination vector. The transgenes tested in this study are RevM10, a dominant negative version of the viral rev protein, Sh1, a short hairpin RNA directed against a conserved overlapping sequence of tat and rev, and membrane-associated C46 (maC46), a membrane-attached peptide that blocks HIV cell entry.