A projection specific logic to sampling visual inputs in mouse superior colliculus.

Using sensory information to trigger different behaviors relies on circuits that pass through brain regions. The rules by which parallel inputs are routed to downstream targets are poorly understood. The superior colliculus mediates a set of innate behaviors, receiving input from >30 retinal ganglion cell types and projecting to behaviorally important targets including the pulvinar and parabigeminal nucleus.

Altered CD4 T cell immunity in nurses occupationally exposed to viral pathogens.

Pathogen exposure, including but not limited to herpesviruses, moulds the shape of the immune system, both at a basal state and in response to immune challenge. However, little is known about the impact of high exposure to other viruses on baseline immune signatures and how the immune system copes with repetitive exposures to maintain a balanced functionality. Here we investigated baseline immune signatures, including detailed T cell phenotyping, antigen-specific CD4 and CD8 T cell responses and cytokine profile in paediatric (PED) nurses, who have high occupational exposure to viral pathogens including varicella zoster virus (VZV) and respiratory viruses, and in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) nurses, as a control group with infrequent occupational exposure.

Author Correction: Multidisciplinary study of the secondary immune response in grandparents re-exposed to chickenpox.

A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML and PDF versions of this paper. The error has been fixed in the paper.

Increased herpes zoster risk associated with poor HLA-A immediate early 62 protein (IE62) affinity.

Around 30% of individuals will develop herpes zoster (HZ), caused by the varicella zoster virus (VZV), during their life. While several risk factors for HZ, such as immunosuppressive therapy, are well known, the genetic and molecular components that determine the risk of otherwise healthy individuals to develop HZ are still poorly understood. We created a computational model for the Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA-A, -B, and -C) presentation capacity of peptides derived from the VZV Immediate Early 62 (IE62) protein.

Inborn errors in RNA polymerase III underlie severe varicella zoster virus infections.

Varicella zoster virus (VZV) typically causes chickenpox upon primary infection. In rare cases, VZV can give rise to life-threatening disease in otherwise healthy people, but the immunological basis for this remains unexplained. We report 4 cases of acute severe VZV infection affecting the central nervous system or the lungs in unrelated, otherwise healthy children who are heterozygous for rare missense mutations in POLR3A (one patient), POLR3C (one patient), or both (two patients).