Vaccine Research
Volume:9 Issue: 1, Winter and Spring 2022

Cancer immunotherapy is one of the effective treatment methods that provide a better quality of life with limited side effects for patients. Carcinoembryonic Antigen (CEA) can be an appropriate target for cancer immunotherapy.

A lentivector expressing CEA antigen, pCDH-CEA, was constructed by cloning CEA cDNA downstream of the CMV promoter. The constructed plasmid was co-transfected with helper plasmids, into Lenti-X 293 T cells. The lentivector-containing supernatant was collected. Titers of the CEA- lentivector were estimated using the RT-PCR method. The CT26 cells were then infected by CEA- lentivector. Puromycin as a selective antibiotic was added to the culture for 2 weeks to select CEA-positive cells. The ability to produce tumors in BALB/c mice was investigated.

The results showed that CEA expressing lentivector plasmids and the two other helper plasmids could be transfected into Lenti-X 293T cells efficiently and packaged successfully as a pseudo-lentivector. The detection of CEA mRNA and protein expression in the 6th and 14th passages of CT26-CEA cells was confirmed in the engineered stable cell line. Tumor formation was confirmed in cell inoculated mice.

  CT26-CEA cell line with stable expression of CEA can be used as a suitable tumor model to facilitate research on colorectal cancer in vitro and in mice models; therefore, it could be served as a valuable tool for cancer immunotherapy

Healthcare workers (HCW) are at an increased risk of acquiring vaccine preventable diseases (VPD) due to their higher patient exposure at the workplace. In this context, they form an important target population for vaccination. The authors of this article wanted to explore into the history of vaccination, the risk profile of the health care workers and the current vaccines recommended for the health care workers. Looking forward, vaccine uptake among the healthcare workers can be improved by measures such as conducting periodic annual health check ups and establishing written hospital vaccination policies.

To prevent pneumococcal infections, especially meningitis and bacteremia, and to overcome the serotype-dependent limitation of polysaccharide-based vaccines, the development of conserved protein-based vaccines is essential. This study aimed at investigate the in-silico analysis and epitope mapping of pneumococcal DnaJ for the first time, and to design the multi-epitope based vaccines with different categories by focusing on induction of both humoral and cellular immunities.

We predicted B- and T-cell epitopes, IL-4, IL-17, IL-10, and IFN-γ inducer epitopes of DnaJ using Immunoinformatics tools. The immunogenicity and conservation score of the predicted epitopes among pneumococcal prevalent clinical serotypes, the immune simulation of DnaJ administration in mammals and potential regions involved in DnaJ-TLRs interactions were analyzed. Finally, we proposed three classes of multi-epitope DnaJ-based vaccine candidates.

This protein had 24 and 15 predicted linear B-cell and helper T-cell epitopes, respectively, with a conservation score of 86-100% among prevalent clinical pneumococcal serotypes. DnaJ also had many IL-4 and IFN-γ inducing epitopes and was considered an IL-10 and IL-17 inducer protein. The immune simulation showed induction of both humoral and cellular immunity against DnaJ. The residues at positions 274, 280, 292, 297, 300, 316-319, 333, 336-340, 358,  363-366,  and 372 were predicted to be involved in DnaJ-TLR2 and DnaJ-TLR4 interactions. Three classes of proposed DnaJ-based constructs were based on only B-cell epitopes, only helper T-cell epitopes, and multi-epitopes of B- and T-cell and IL-17 epitopes.

The results showed that although DnaJ has been reported to play an important role in cellular immunity, our results indicated the high potential of DnaJ to stimulate mucosal, humoral, and cellular immunity.

This study aimed to evaluate the baseline characteristics of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2, after receiving first or second doses of COVID-19 vaccine.

In this cross-sectional study, we examined 100 patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection after vaccination and collected demographic characteristics and history of underlying diseases, lung involvement, and severity of the disease, as well as the type of vaccine received and the duration of onset of the diseases symptoms after vaccination. The relationship between the disease severity and variables was evaluated by the bivariate analysis. Multiple logistic regression model was performed to predict the severity of the disease by calculating the odds ratios and  95% confidence intervals (CIs).

The mean±SD age of COVID-19 patients was 62.54±14.93 years. 59% of patients were male. The mean interval between vaccination and onset of symptom disease was 4.95 days.  In bivariable analysis, there was a difference between the mean of the lung involvement in CT scan, O2 saturation, hypertension (HTN), and Severity of the disease (p < 0.001). In multiple logistic regression analysis, HTN (OR: 5.6, 95CI:1.07-25.5, p = 0.04), O2 saturation < 90% (OR:1.53, 95% CI: 1.39-2.92, p =0.003) and lung involvement ≥ 30% in CT scan were predictors of disease severity.

Due to the short time interval between COVID-19 vaccination and the disease symptoms in this study, it is recommended all people with any symptom of disease to avoid the vaccination

Vaccine hesitancy is a global phenomenon and vaccination efforts against the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may be hampered by it. This study assessed the acceptance rate of COVID-19 vaccination at different hypothetical efficacy and safety levels in Nigeria.

This web-based study was conducted among a selected Nigerian population between the month of February and May 2021 using an online self-administered structured questionnaire hosted by Survey Monkey. WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook were used to disseminate the invitation to take the poll.

The finding of this study revealed that a larger proportion of the participants were males (53.9%), within the age group of 31-40 years (25.6%) and earn an average income of less than $500 per month. Individuals between the ages of 21 and 30 years and 31 to 40 years showed the highest levels of acceptability for the COVID-19 vaccine at 95% efficacy and 5% adverse effects. The older age group (>51 years and above) had the least vaccine acceptance rate (3.3%) at 75% vaccine efficacy and 20% side effect. Respondents who held the belief that vaccinations are essential for their health had a higher chance to accept the COVID-19 vaccine with OR: 0.76; 50%CI (0.00-0.00), OR:  95%CI (0.000-0.000), OR: 1.23; 95%CI (0.193-7.860) and OR: 0.696; 95%CI (0.048-10.047) based on religion, the occurrence of diabetes, pulmonary disease, and Hypertension, respectively.

The results of this research indicate that vaccine acceptance rates are negatively correlated with participants' ages.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a vaccine-preventable disease amongst all ages; however, parental attitudes, perceptions and concerns towards children’s vaccination can hamper immunization efforts and leave this vulnerable group of the society unprotected. The aim of this study is to assess the attitude, perception and concern towards children’s vaccination amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic among selected workers in a Nigerian population.

This web-based study was conducted among a selected Nigerian population between the month of February and May 2021 using an online self-administered structured questionnaire hosted by Survey Monkey. The invitation to take part in the poll was sent out to a total of 180 persons through social networking platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp. Version 25 of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyze the data collected and results presented using tables, bar charts and pie charts. The cutoff point was established at a level of significance equal to P < 0.05.

Vaccine hesitant score on childhood acceptance rates shows that 28 (15.6%) had low acceptance rates, 125 (69.4%) had moderate acceptance rates, and 27 (15.0%) had high acceptance rates. There was significant association between age and overall vaccine hesitance on children’s vaccination acceptance rates at χ2 = 16.804, P = 0.032.

More than two-thirds of study participants supported children's vaccination. Those with low compliance may lack a realistic perception of infection risk, poor-quality information about immunizations and the disease, and general understanding.

Since HLA-B*15:02 is a biomarker for carbamazepine-induced Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) in certain Asian populations, the United States food and drug administration (USFDA) recommends HLA-B*15:02 screening before carbamazepine administration in Asian and other communities. Several published reports across the globe suggested a strong association of HLA-B*15 with carbamazepine-induced hypersensitivity reactions.

This study was conducted to estimate the prevalence and the genetic polymorphism of HLA-B*15 in the North Indian population (N=5469) by PCR  sequence-specific oligonucleotide probe (SSOP) genotyping of the HLA-B locus.

The total allelic variants of HLA-B*15 identified amongst the studied samples were 17. The most frequent among these was HLA-B*15:17 (2.030%). Subsequently, HLA -B* 15:01 (1.463%) and B*15:02 (1.225%) were more frequent. Further, 185 HLA-B*15 genotypes were seen among the studied population with which the most frequent were HLA-B*15:17-40:06(0.402%), HLA-B*15:17-35:03 (0.366%) and HLA-B*15:02-40:06 (0.347%).

This information highlights the prevalence and diversity of HLA-B*15 genotyping and its importance in the screening of carbamazepine-induced SJS/TEN in the North Indian population where the prevalence of HLA-B*15 allelic variants was on the higher side. Further, this baseline information could be further explored in the understanding of the pathogenesis of the disease and may contribute valuable information for designing effective vaccines and clinical trials.     

Amastin is a surface glycoprotein in Leishmania species and one of the most important vaccine candidates due to its involvement in pathogenesis and being an essential virulence factor for parasite replication within the mammalian host cells. There are more than 60 copies of Amastin gene per genome of the parasite.

Following phylogenetic analysis, a selected Amastin sequence was optimized and cloned with signal peptide in Escherichia coli. The recombinant protein was evaluated by SDG-PAGE and a specific antibody by Western blotting.

Among the Amastin sequences within different chromosomes of Leishmania major, the main type known as delta Amastin (primary distributed on chromosome 34) could be expressed in E. coli host and was confirmed by SDG-PAGE and Western blotting.

Due to its copy number and evolutionary conservation and its role in pathogenesis, δ-Amastin is considered as an important vaccine candidate against leishmaniasis which could be expressed as a recombinant protein in E. coli.