Publications by authors named "T Koshizuka"
Article Synopsis
- Monocytes and macrophages are crucial for the immune response, but Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) exploits these cells to spread the virus by downregulating important cell surface markers.
- The study investigates how HCMV protein pUL42 interacts with ubiquitin E3 ligases, particularly focusing on the downregulation of CD86, a key factor for immune activation, using engineered THP-1 cells.
- Results show that modifications to pUL42 can slow down CD86 degradation, and while there’s an increase in Nedd4 and Itch proteins in infected cells, pUL42's function appears to involve these proteins without directly increasing their levels.
Mucosal vaccination presents a promising complement to parenteral vaccination. Bacterium-like particles (BLPs), peptidoglycan structures prepared from lactic acid bacteria, are explored as potential nasal vaccine adjuvants for respiratory infections. To date, studies on BLP-adjuvanted nasal vaccines against intestinal infections have remained limited.
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- Congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infections are a major cause of hearing loss and neurological issues in children, making the development of vaccines a top public health priority.
- The existing gB/MF59 vaccine shows only about 50% efficacy against natural infections, primarily generating high antibody levels that don't effectively neutralize the virus.
- Recent findings indicate non-neutralizing antibody functions, particularly antibody-dependent phagocytosis, are crucial for vaccine design, with key insights suggesting that focusing on specific epitopes on domains I and II of the gB protein could enhance vaccine development efforts.
Evaluation of Toxoplasma gondii IgG avidity assays through a comparison of IgM serostatus.
Diagn Microbiol Infect Dis
April 2023
Primary Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) infection during pregnancy could result in congenital disease with severe clinical complications. IgM antibodies are one of the indices of primary infection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDirect administration of vaccines to mucosal surfaces, such as oral or nasal vaccination, represents an attractive alternative, or complement, to current parenteral vaccination because it has a potential to induce antigen-specific immunity both at mucosal and systemic tissues. Although bacterium-like particles (BLPs), peptidoglycan structures derived from lactic acid bacteria, have been investigated as a novel adjuvant for oral or nasal vaccines, it remains unclear whether the administration routes differ the adjuvant effect of BLPs. Here, we showed that the adjuvant effect of BLPs from NZ9000 is greater with the nasal administration than with the oral administration.
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