Residual Immunity from Smallpox Vaccination and Possible Protection from Mpox, China.

Among persons born in China before 1980 and tested for vaccinia virus Tiantan strain (VVT), 28.7% (137/478) had neutralizing antibodies, 71.4% (25/35) had memory B-cell responses, and 65.7% (23/35) had memory T-cell responses to VVT. Because of cross-immunity between the viruses, these findings can help guide mpox vaccination strategies in China.

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 Nef in human monocyte-like cell line THP-1 expands treg cells via toll-like receptor 2.

CD4(+) CD25(+) regulatory T cells (Tregs) represent a unique T-cell lineage that is endowed with the ability to actively suppress immune responses in order to inhibit pathogenic damage resulting from over activation of the immune system. In human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) infection, suppression of the immune response by Tregs appears to play an opposing role that promotes chronic viral infection. Treg expansion is known as a marker of the severity of HIV infection and as a potential prognostic marker of disease progression. HIV-1 Nef is one of the earliest expressed viral regulatory genes whose expression may play an important role in regulating Treg cells. We established a THP-1 cell line stably expressing HIV-1 Nef and showed that Nef protein was a potent factor for increasing Treg numbers in vitro. We further found that TLR2 plays a critical role in the increase in Treg cells induced by Nef using TLR2-specific siRNA. Our results suggest new strategies for therapeutic and preventive interventions of HIV infection.

Integration-free reprogramming of human umbilical arterial endothelial cells into induced pluripotent stem cells IHSTMi001-A.

Primary arterial endothelial cell (AEC) is an attractive source of tissue-engineered blood vessels for therapeutic transplantation in vascular disease. However, scarcity of donor tissue, inability of proliferation and undergo de-differentiation in culture remain major obstacles. We derived a stable induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) line possessed all the characteristics of pluripotent state from human umbilical arterial endothelial cells by transduction of four human transcription factors (Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc) using sendai virus vectors. It will likely facilitate to lineage differentiate and generate sufficient AECs for clinical use in cardiovascular disease based on epigenetic memory of the tissue of origin.

Evaluation of Annexin A2 as a novel diagnostic serum biomarker for lung cancer.

Annexin A2 (ANXA2) is a 36 kDa protein which orchestrates multiple biologic processes and clinical associations, especially in cancer progression. It is important to establish a specific and sensitive ANXA2 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the study of ANXA2 functions and its clinical application. Therefore, we prepared a polyclonal antibody (PAb) in rabbits and a monoclonal antibody (MAb) in mices immunized with a recombinant ANXA2 protein. Based on our self-made MAb and PAb, highly specific and sensitive ELISA was developed. The detection limitation of ANXA2 was 10 ng/mL and the linear dynamic range was between 10 and 500 ng/mL. Using the established ELISA, we detected ANXA2 protein in human serum. It was found that soluble ANXA2 concentration in serum samples from 42 lung cancer patients was significantly higher than that from 43 healthy individuals (p< 0.01). Our data provides a new approach for detecting soluble ANXA2, especially in large ongoing and future clinical studies.