Publications by authors named "Leah Homad"

Article Synopsis
  • Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) poses serious health risks for young children and elderly individuals, with current vaccines mainly available for adults over 60 and temporary protection for infants through maternal antibodies.
  • Researchers have developed a new type of vaccine that uses an anti-idiotypic monoclonal antibody (ai-mAb) specifically designed to target B cell receptors capable of producing RSV-neutralizing antibodies.
  • This novel approach effectively engages the right B cells without triggering unwanted immune responses, showcasing potential for a more effective infant vaccine against RSV.
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Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is associated with several malignancies, neurodegenerative disorders and is the causative agent of infectious mononucleosis. A vaccine that prevents EBV-driven morbidity and mortality remains an unmet need. EBV is orally transmitted, infecting both B cells and epithelial cells.

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Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is associated with infectious mononucleosis, cancer, and multiple sclerosis. A vaccine that prevents infection and/or EBV-associated morbidity is an unmet need. The viral gH/gL glycoprotein complex is essential for infectivity, making it an attractive vaccine target.

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We evaluated antibody against Epstein-Barr virus glycoproteins (gp350, gH/gL, gB, gp42) in 97 nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) cases and 97 cancer-free controls. Each unit increase in log-transformed antibody against gp350 and gH/gL was associated with 2.27 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.

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Article Synopsis
  • Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is linked to serious health issues, including cancer, infectious mononucleosis, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis, leading to 165,000 deaths annually.
  • An effective vaccine is needed to target both epithelial and B cells during oral transmission of EBV, with gH/gL glycoprotein complex showing promise as a candidate.
  • Research indicates that nanoparticle vaccines containing multiple copies of gH/gL provide significantly better immunogenicity than monomeric versions, successfully eliciting protective antibodies in experimental models.
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Three betacoronaviruses have crossed the species barrier and established human-to-human transmission causing significant morbidity and mortality in the past 20 years. The most current and widespread of these is SARS-CoV-2. The identification of CoVs with zoonotic potential in animal reservoirs suggests that additional outbreaks could occur.

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SARS-CoV-2 is one of three coronaviruses that have crossed the animal-to-human barrier and caused widespread disease in the past two decades. The development of a universal human coronavirus vaccine could prevent future pandemics. We characterize 198 antibodies isolated from four COVID-19+ subjects and identify 14 SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies.

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Three highly pathogenic β-coronaviruses have crossed the animal-to-human species barrier in the past two decades: SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2. To evaluate the possibility of identifying antibodies with broad neutralizing activity, we isolated a monoclonal antibody, termed B6, that cross-reacts with eight β-coronavirus spike glycoproteins, including all five human-infecting β-coronaviruses. B6 broadly neutralizes entry of pseudotyped viruses from lineages A and C, but not from lineage B, and the latter includes SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2.

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An effective HIV-1 vaccine will likely need to elicit broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs). Broad and potent VRC01-class bNAbs have been isolated from multiple infected individuals, suggesting that they could be reproducibly elicited by vaccination. Several HIV-1 envelope-derived germline-targeting immunogens have been designed to engage naive VRC01-class precursor B cells.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study focuses on creating nanocages that combine structured antibody components with designed oligomers to enhance their interaction with specific receptors.* -
  • Eight different nanocage structures were produced and analyzed using electron microscopy, which confirmed their shapes matched anticipated designs.* -
  • These antibody nanocages showed improved signaling and immune responses in various biological processes, including enhanced apoptosis, angiogenesis, T cell activation, and better neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 pseudoviruses compared to traditional antibody approaches.*
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SARS-CoV-2 is one of three coronaviruses that have crossed the animal-to-human barrier in the past two decades. The development of a universal human coronavirus vaccine could prevent future pandemics. We characterized 198 antibodies isolated from four COVID19+ subjects and identified 14 SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies.

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Emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants have raised concerns about resistance to neutralizing antibodies elicited by previous infection or vaccination. We examined whether sera from recovered and naïve donors collected prior to, and following immunizations with existing mRNA vaccines, could neutralize the Wuhan-Hu-1 and B.1.

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Emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants have raised concerns about resistance to neutralizing antibodies elicited by previous infection or vaccination. We examined whether sera from recovered and naive donors collected prior to, and following immunizations with existing mRNA vaccines, could neutralize the Wuhan-Hu-1 and B.1.

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Three highly pathogenic β-coronaviruses crossed the animal-to-human species barrier in the past two decades: SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2. SARS-CoV-2 has infected more than 64 million people worldwide, claimed over 1.4 million lives and is responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

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Antibodies are widely used in biology and medicine, and there has been considerable interest in multivalent antibody formats to increase binding avidity and enhance signaling pathway agonism. However, there are currently no general approaches for forming precisely oriented antibody assemblies with controlled valency. We describe the computational design of two-component nanocages that overcome this limitation by uniting form and function.

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Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a cancer-associated pathogen for which there is no vaccine. Successful anti-viral vaccines elicit antibodies that neutralize infectivity; however, it is unknown whether neutralizing antibodies prevent EBV acquisition. Here we assessed whether passively delivered AMMO1, a monoclonal antibody that neutralizes EBV in a cell-type-independent manner, could protect against experimental EBV challenge in two animal infection models.

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Antibody responses develop following SARS-CoV-2 infection, but little is known about their epitope specificities, clonality, binding affinities, epitopes, and neutralizing activity. We isolated B cells specific for the SARS-CoV-2 envelope glycoprotein spike (S) from a COVID-19-infected subject 21 days after the onset of clinical disease. 45 S-specific monoclonal antibodies were generated.

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B cells specific for the SARS-CoV-2 S envelope glycoprotein spike were isolated from a COVID-19-infected subject using a stabilized spike-derived ectodomain (S2P) twenty-one days post-infection. Forty-four S2P-specific monoclonal antibodies were generated, three of which bound to the receptor binding domain (RBD). The antibodies were minimally mutated from germline and were derived from different B cell lineages.

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