Longitudinal determination of BNT162b2 vaccine induced strongly binding SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies in a cohort of Romanian healthcare workers.

Mass vaccination against the disease caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) was a crucial step in slowing the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in 2021. Even in the face of new variants, it still remains extremely important for reducing hospitalizations and COVID-19 deaths. In order to better understand the short- and long-term dynamics of humoral immune response, we present a longitudinal analysis of post-vaccination IgG levels in a cohort of 166 Romanian healthcare workers vaccinated with BNT162b2 with weekly follow-up until 35 days past the first dose and monthly follow-up up to 6 months post-vaccination.

Cytotoxic activity of human dendritic cells induces RIPK1-dependent cell death.

Dendritic cells (DCs), as potent phagocytes engulf dead cells and present peptide fragments of tumor antigens or pathogens derived from infected cells to naïve CD8 T-lymphocytes. Dendritic cells can also induce apoptosis in target cells, thus getting an opportunity to sample their microenvironment. Here, we present that the supernatants of LPS- or CL075-activated DCs induced cell death in different cell lines, but during the differentiation to mature DCs, they lost their cytotoxic potential.

Reusable on-plate immunoprecipitation method with covalently immobilized antibodies on a protein G covered microtiter plate.

Covalent immobilization of antibodies to protein G beads is a basic molecular biology method, although the beads present poor recovery results. Our aim was to reuse the immobilized antibody-protein G complex on a very small scale, therefore we optimized the crosslinking procedure to be used on the wells of a standard 96-well microplate. The method used involves the affinity binding of the antibody to the protein G surface, followed by the immobilization step using different crosslinking reagents, DMP and BS, quenching the crosslinking reaction, and binding the antibody-specific antigen.