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Recent Posts
- Virology Courses online
- Delivery System for Gene Therapy May Help Treat Arthritis
- Could DNA Vaccines Be Reaching Their Prime?
- Immune Responses in Pigs Induced by Recombinant DNA Vaccine Co-Expressing Swine IL-18 and Membrane Protein of Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus
- Gene Therapy for Hearing Loss: Potential and Limitations
- A Novel Tuberculosis DNA Vaccine in an HIV-1 p24 Protein Backbone Confers Protection against Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Simultaneously Elicits Robust Humoral and Cellular Responses to HIV-1
- Penn researchers report a gene-therapy success
- Rapid and simplified purification of recombinant adeno-associated virus
- Targeted Gene Therapy Offers Relief from Pain and Inflammation
- Profectus Wins $5.4M NIAID Grant for rVSV Vaccine Against Ebola and Marburg Viruses
- Immunogenic analysis of DNA vaccines of Avian reovirus mediated by attenuated Salmonella typhimurium in chicken
- Ezetimibe: A biomarker for efficacy of liver directed UGT1A1 gene therapy for inherited hyperbilirubinemia.
- Gene Therapy Safe in Decade-Long HIV Study That May Widen Use
- Immunomic Therapeutics Receives IND Authorization for Phase I Study of JRC-LAMP-Vax Vaccine to Treat Japanese Red Cedar (Sugi) Allergy
- Enhanced cellular immune response elicited by a DNA vaccine fused with Ub against Mycobacterium tuberculosis
- DNA Vaccine-Generated Duck Polyclonal Antibodies as a Postexposure Prophylactic to Prevent Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS)
- Macroom doctor leading way on breast cancer treatments
- Adenovirus Vector Leads the Gene Therapy Market Usage
- “Gene Vaccines”, published by Springer Wien New York is now available
- Oral immunization of rainbow trout to infectious pancreatic necrosis virus (Ipnv) induces different immune gene expression profiles in head kidney and pyloric ceca.
May Webinar: Optimizing Gene Expression/Performance using GeneGPS™
April 24, 2012 – 4:38 pm
Gene synthesis allows researchers to tailor gene sequences for optimal utility for any application. However, the relationship between gene sequence and expression is complex and depends on a wide range of sequence variables. DNA2.0 uses a systematic engineering approach, GeneGPS™, to navigate these variables with a minimal number of test genes to optimize performance. Application of this approach with a variety of protein targets and expression hosts will be described.
Virology Courses online
May 15, 2012 – 4:17 pm
Columbia University's Virology Courses (online)
The basic thesis of the course is that all viruses adopt a common strategy. ....
Delivery System for Gene Therapy May Help Treat Arthritis
May 15, 2012 – 11:03 am
A DNA-covered submicroscopic bead used to deliver genes or drugs directly into cells to treat disease appears to have therapeutic value just by showing up, researchers report.
Could DNA Vaccines Be Reaching Their Prime?
May 15, 2012 – 11:00 am
In his talk at the 15th Annual Conference on Vaccine Research about advances in vaccine discovery, David Weiner, chair of the gene therapy and vaccines program at the University of Pennsylvania, recalled that it has been about two decades since the “public coming out” of DNA-based vaccination in AIDS research.
Immune Responses in Pigs Induced by Recombinant DNA Vaccine Co-Expressing Swine IL-18 and Membrane Protein of Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus
May 14, 2012 – 12:09 pm
In this study, two DNA vaccines, which express the membrane (M) protein of porcine respiratory and reproductive syndrome virus (PRRSV) (pEGFP-M) and co-express both M and swine IL-18 (pEGFP-IL18-M), were constructed and their abilities to induce humoral and cellular responses in piglets were comparatively evaluated. Experimental results showed that both recombinant DNA vaccines could not elicit neutralizing antibodies in the immunized piglets.
Gene Therapy for Hearing Loss: Potential and Limitations
May 14, 2012 – 12:04 pm
Regenerating sensory hair cells, which produce electrical signals in response to vibrations within the inner ear, could form the basis for treating age- or trauma-related hearing loss. One way to do this could be with gene therapy that drives new sensory hair cells to grow.
A Novel Tuberculosis DNA Vaccine in an HIV-1 p24 Protein Backbone Confers Protection against Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Simultaneously Elicits Robust Humoral and Cellular Responses to HIV-1
May 10, 2012 – 11:17 pm
Tuberculosis (TB) caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis remains a major infectious disease worldwide. Moreover, latent M. tuberculosis infection is more likely to progress to active TB and eventually leads to death when HIV infection is involved. Thus, it is urgent to develop a novel TB vaccine with immunogenicity to both M. tuberculosis and HIV. In this study, four uncharacterized T cell epitopes from MPT64, Ag85A, Ag85B, and TB10.4 antigens of M. tuberculosis were predicted, and HIV-1-derived p24, an immunodominant protein that can induce protective responses to HIV-1, was used as an immunogenic backbone. M. tuberculosis epitopes were incorporated separately into the gene backbone of p24, forming a pP24-Mtb DNA vaccine. We demonstrated that pP24-Mtb immunization induced a strong M. tuberculosis-specific cellular response as evidenced by T cell proliferation, cytotoxicity, and elevated frequency of gamma interferon (IFN-γ)-secreting T cells. Interestingly, a p24-specific cellular response and high levels of p24-specific IgG were also induced by pP24-Mtb immunization. When the protective effect was assessed after mycobacterial challenge, pP24-Mtb vaccination significantly reduced tissue bacterial loads and profoundly attenuated the mycobacterial infection-related lung inflammation and injury. Our findings demonstrated that the pP24-Mtb tuberculosis vaccine confers effective protection against mycobacterial challenge with simultaneously elicited robust immune responses to HIV-1, which may provide clues for developing novel vaccines to prevent dual infections.
Penn researchers report a gene-therapy success
May 10, 2012 – 10:57 pm
For a quarter of a century, gene therapy has been stymied, largely because the patient's immune system attacks the treatment as a suspected rogue - or because it actually does turn rogue.
Now, University of Pennsylvania researchers have convincingly shown that they can overcome these formidable obstacles. Cells that were genetically modified to fight HIV have persisted for up to 11 years - and counting - without bad side effects in 41 patients. In two other patients, the modified cells were safe but not as durable, according to the Penn study, published last week in Science Translational Medicine.
Rapid and simplified purification of recombinant adeno-associated virus
May 10, 2012 – 10:52 pm
Preclinical gene therapy studies both in vitro and in vivo require high purity preparations of adeno-associated virus (AAV). Current methods for purification of AAV entail the use of centrifugation over either a CsCl or iodixanol gradient, or the use of chromatography. These methods can be cumbersome and expensive, necessitating ultrahigh speed gradient centrifugation or, for chromatography the use of other expensive equipment. In addition, these methods are time consuming, and the viral yield is not high. Currently no commercial purification kits are available for other than AAV serotype 2. A simplified method was used for the purification of AAV, with a viral yield that is able to be used effectively in adult and embryo mice. The method does not require ultrahigh speed gradient centrifugation nor chromatography. Instead, polyethylene glycol (PEG)/aqueous two-phase partitioning is used to remove soluble proteins from the PEG8000 precipitated virus-protein mixture. The procedure obtained rapidly up to 95% recovery of high quality purified AAV. The entire purification process, including HEK293 cell transfection, can be completed readily within one week, with purity seemingly higher than that obtained after one round of CsCl gradient purification.
Targeted Gene Therapy Offers Relief from Pain and Inflammation
May 10, 2012 – 10:50 pm
Chronic pain affects an estimated 116 million Americans and costs $635 billion each year in medical treatment and lost productivity.
Aditi Bhargava, PhD, associate professor at UCSF’s School of Medicine, is using a technique known as RNA interference (RNAi) to develop a gene therapy system that sends specific commands to certain neurons, or nerve cells, telling them to turn off pain, or stop inflammation.
Profectus Wins $5.4M NIAID Grant for rVSV Vaccine Against Ebola and Marburg Viruses
May 3, 2012 – 1:22 pm
Profectus Biosciences won a $5.4 million five-year grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to support the development of a trivalent vaccine that protects against infection by all major strains of the Ebola and Marburg filoviruses. The vaccine will be based on Profectus’ replication-competent recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (rVSV) technology, which the firm has already used to generate vectors expressing the surface glycoproteins from Ebola and Marburg viruses.
