STING-Activating Adjuvants Elicit a Th17 Immune Response and Protect against Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection.

There are a limited number of adjuvants that elicit effective cell-based immunity required for protection against intracellular bacterial pathogens. Here, we report that STING-activating cyclic dinucleotides (CDNs) formulated in a protein subunit vaccine elicit long-lasting protective immunity to Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the mouse model. Subcutaneous administration of this vaccine provides equivalent protection to that of the live attenuated vaccine strain Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG).

Mycobacterium tuberculosis proteins involved in cell wall lipid biosynthesis improve BCG vaccine efficacy in a murine TB model.

Objectives: Advances in tuberculosis (TB) vaccine development are urgently required to enhance global disease management. We evaluated the potential of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tb)-derived protein antigens Rv0447c, Rv2957 and Rv2958c to boost BCG vaccine efficacy in the presence or absence of glucopyranosyl lipid adjuvant formulated in a stable emulsion (GLA-SE) adjuvant.

Psychological distress in the workforce: a multilevel and longitudinal analysis of the case of regulated occupations in Canada.

Background: This study uses a multidimensional theoretical model to evaluate the role of regulated occupations and working conditions in explaining psychological distress.

Methods: Various multilevel regression analyses were conducted on longitudinal data for which measures repeated over time (n1 = 36,166) were nested in individuals (n2 = 7007).

Results: Results showed that when we controlled for working conditions, family situation, the social network outside the workplace, and personal characteristics, the level of psychological distress was significantly lower among professional workers in regulated occupations than among professionals not in regulated occupations.

A longitudinal and comparative study of psychological distress among professional workers in regulated occupations in Canada.

Background: Although several studies are concerned by the phenomenon of psychological distress at work, few studies have looked at the prevalence of psychological distress among professional workers in the regulated occupations and compare this prevalence with other occupations.

Objectives: This study propose to define regulated occupations by laying out the theoretical boundaries that apply to the practice of these occupations and try to understand how regulated occupations contributed to the experience of psychological distress in the Canadian workforce over time.

Method: Multilevel logistical regression analyses on longitudinal data were performed to compare the odds of experiencing psychological distress over time among professional workers in regulated occupations (n=276) and among other professional workers, classified into 6 categories (n=6731), over a 12-year period.

Induction of cell death after localization to the host cell mitochondria by the Mycobacterium tuberculosis PE_PGRS33 protein.

PE_PGRS33 is the most studied member of the unique PE family of mycobacterial proteins. These proteins are composed of a PE domain (Pro-Glu motif), a linker region and a PGRS domain (polymorphic GC-rich-repetitive sequence). Previous studies have shown that PE_PGRS33 is surface-exposed, constitutively expressed during growth and infection, involved in creating antigenic diversity, and able to induce death in transfected or infected eukaryotic cells.