Evaluation of a novel malaria anti-sporozoite vaccine candidate, R21 in Matrix-M adjuvant, in the UK and Burkina Faso: two phase 1, first-in-human trials.

Background: Malaria remains a substantial public health burden among young children in sub-Saharan Africa and a highly efficacious vaccine eliciting a durable immune response would be a useful tool for controlling malaria. R21 is a malaria vaccine comprising nanoparticles, formed from a circumsporozoite protein and hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) fusion protein, without any unfused HBsAg, and is administered with the saponin-based Matrix-M adjuvant. This study aimed to assess the safety and immunogenicity of the malaria vaccine candidate, R21, administered with or without adjuvant Matrix-M in adults naïve to malaria infection and in healthy adults from malaria endemic areas.

R21 in Matrix-M adjuvant in UK malaria-naive adult men and non-pregnant women aged 18-45 years: an open-label, partially blinded, phase 1-2a controlled human malaria infection study.

Background: R21 is a novel malaria vaccine, composed of a fusion protein of the malaria circumsporozoite protein and hepatitis B surface antigen. Following favourable safety and immunogenicity in a phase 1 study, we aimed to assess the efficacy of R21 administered with Matrix-M (R21/MM) against clinical malaria in adults from the UK who were malaria naive in a controlled human malaria infection study.

Methods: In this open-label, partially blinded, phase 1-2A controlled human malaria infection study undertaken in Oxford, Southampton, and London, UK, we tested five novel vaccination regimens of R21/MM.

Autophagy-Mediated Downregulation of AXL and TIM-1 Promotes Sustained Zika Virus Infection.

Unlabelled: Zika virus (ZIKV) infection can lead to a variety of clinical outcomes, including severe congenital abnormalities. The phosphatidylserine (PS) receptors AXL and TIM-1 are recognized as critical entry factors for ZIKV . However, it remains unclear if and how ZIKV regulates these receptors during infection.

Repurposing of a gill gene regulatory program for outer ear evolution.

How novel structures emerge during evolution has long fascinated biologists. A dramatic example is how the diminutive bones of the mammalian middle ear arose from ancestral fish jawbones. In contrast, the evolutionary origin of the outer ear, another mammalian innovation, remains a mystery, in part because it is supported by non-mineralized elastic cartilage rarely recovered in fossils.

FGFR2 directs inhibition of WNT signaling to regulate anterior fontanelle closure during skull development.

The calvarial bones of the infant skull are linked by transient fibrous joints known as sutures and fontanelles, which are essential for skull compression during birth and expansion during postnatal brain growth. Genetic conditions caused by pathogenic variants in FGFR2, such as Apert, Pfeiffer, Crouzon syndromes, result in calvarial deformities due to premature suture fusion and a persistently open anterior fontanelle (AF). In this study we investigated how Fgfr2 regulates AF closure by leveraging mouse genetics and single-cell transcriptomics.