Effective drug delivery to the central nervous system (CNS) remains a challenge due to the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Macromolecules such as proteins and peptides are unable to cross BBB and have poor therapeutic efficacy due to little or no drug distribution. A promising alternative is the conjugation of a drug to a shuttle molecule that can reach the CNS via receptor-mediated transcytosis (RMT).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInterferons (IFNs) are cytokines involved in the immune response with a synergistic regulatory effect on the immune response. They are therapeutics for various viral and proliferative conditions, with proven safety and efficacy. Their clinical application is challenging due to the molecules' size, degradation, and pharmacokinetics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe epidermal growth factor (EGF) is one of the most critical ligands of the EGF receptor (EGFR), a well-known oncogene frequently overexpressed in cancerous cells and an important therapeutic target in cancer. The EGF is the target of a therapeutic vaccine aimed at inducing an anti-EGF antibody response to sequester this molecule from serum. However, strikingly, very few investigations have focused on EGF immunotargeting.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNanobodies (Nbs) are single domain antibody fragments derived from heavy-chain antibodies found in members of the Camelidae family. They have become a relevant class of biomolecules for many different applications because of several important advantages such as their small size, high solubility and stability, and low production costs. On the other hand, synthetic Nb libraries are emerging as an attractive alternative to animal immunization for the selection of antigen-specific Nbs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To design and construct a new synthetic nanobody library using a structure-based approach that seeks to maintain high protein stability and increase the number of functional variants within the combinatorial space of mutations.
Results: Synthetic nanobody (Nb) libraries are emerging as an attractive alternative to animal immunization for the selection of stable, high affinity Nbs. Two key features define a synthetic Nb library: framework selection and CDR design.
J Vet Res
March 2021
Introduction: Proper conformational arrangement of the E2 molecules of bovine viral diarrhoea-mucosal disease virus (BVD-MDV) is crucial to obtain an effective recombinant vaccine candidate against the disease. In this study, we characterised a new molecule composed of two distinct sequences of the E2 glycoprotein of BVD-MDV and the Fc fragment of human immunoglobulin (BVDE2Fc).
Materials And Methods: The chimaeric protein was expressed in mammalian cell lines of different species by adenoviral transduction and purified by immobilised metal-affinity chromatography.
Andes virus (ANDV) is a human-pathogenic hantavirus. Hantaviruses presumably initiate their mRNA synthesis by using cap structures derived from host cell mRNAs, a mechanism called cap-snatching. A signature for a cap-snatching endonuclease is present in the N terminus of hantavirus L proteins.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLentiviral vectors containing the green fluorescent protein gene have been successfully used to select transgenic embryos before transfer to a surrogate mother. However, there are apparently no reports regarding early detection of transgenic embryos using a lentiviral vector carrying an additional transcription unit for tissue-specific expression of a valuable protein. In this study, two HIV-based lentiviral vectors were constructed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRecombinant adenoviral vectors have emerged as an attractive system for veterinary vaccines development. However, for poultry vaccination a very important criterion for an ideal vaccine is its low cost. The objective of this study was to test the ability of chicken CD154 to enhance the immunogenicity of an adenoviral vector-based vaccine against avian influenza virus in order to reduce the amount of antigen required to induce an effective immune response in avian.
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