Translational Immunology Core

This narrative review explores the complex landscape of coinfections involving Human Pegivirus Type 1 (HPgV), a member of the Hepaciviridae family previously known as GB virus type C or hepatitis G virus. Structurally similar to hepatitis C virus (HCV), HPgV is lymphotropic and while viraemia in healthy donors is asymptomatic, it has been associated with the onset of several non-Hodgkin lymphoma subtypes. We begin with an overview of HPgV's genomic features, classification, transmission routes...

The relationship between SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell responses and COVID-19 risk is incompletely understood, particularly after variant-adapted booster receipt. We assessed Spike-specific and Nucleocapsid-specific CD4^(+) and CD8^(+) T cell responses, measured by validated 27-color intracellular cytokine staining assay, as correlates of COVID-19 risk over 6 months in COVAIL recipients of a second SARS-CoV-2 booster on Day 1 (D1). Among one-dose mRNA recipients, D15 CD4 + T cell IFN-γ and/or IL-2...

Poultry meat and eggs are major sources of Salmonella foodborne illness, due to carriage of these bacterial pathogens in the intestinal microbiome of chickens, which is an ongoing food safety issue throughout the world. Reducing or eliminating the carriage of Salmonella in poultry would significantly improve food safety and reduce cases of human salmonellosis. This study represents a new approach to reduce or eliminate carriage of Salmonella in poultry flocks. We have created an E. coli Nissle...

Congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) is the most common congenital infection and a leading infectious cause of childhood hearing loss and neurodevelopmental disability. The cellular organization of the placental response to infection is incompletely defined. We applied Visium CytAssist spatial transcriptomics to formalin-fixed tissue from two CMV-infected and two uninfected late-gestation placentas and annotated the major maternal and fetal cell populations by reference-based label transfer. Across...

BACKGROUND: Unintentional poisoning is a preventable cause of injury-related morbidity and mortality, yet global patterns, trends, and inequalities remain incompletely characterised. Within the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) framework, unintentional poisoning includes poisoning by carbon monoxide and poisoning by other means, a category largely informed by pesticide poisoning codes plus some indirect capture of other poisoning as part of the GBD re-distribution process. Poisonings by...

Bifidobacteria dominate the gut microbiota of breast-fed infants, and are strongly associated with human health, including immune regulation, colonization resistance, and protection against inflammation. However, bifidobacteria persist at high abundance after weaning in only a subset of individuals, and the factors that regulate intestinal persistence of bifidobacteria are poorly understood. Using gnotobiotic mouse models, we identified a common dietary fiber, raffinose, as a critical...

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Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) are web-like structures comprising chromatin scaffolds decorated with cytotoxic granule proteins released during a specialized form of neutrophil cell death termed NETosis. Although NETs function as a critical antimicrobial defense mechanism, their dysregulation contributes significantly to the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). In SLE patients, both excessive NET formation by proinflammatory low-density granulocytes (LDGs) and impaired NET...

Previous research demonstrated that Campylobacter jejuni encodes a heme utilization system that facilitates heme-dependent growth under iron-limiting conditions, and that transcription of this system is induced during human infection. Despite these observations, it remained unknown whether the heme transport system is required for colonization and disease in a susceptible host. To address this, we created individual non-polar deletion mutants of each component of the heme transport system and...

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is thought to be mediated by human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class II-restricted autoreactive CD4 T cells producing interleukin (IL)-17A and/or interferon γ (IFNγ), but the necessity of these cytokines for disease pathogenesis is unclear. Utilizing HLA-DR3 (DRβ1*0301) transgenic mice lacking IFNγ or IL-17A in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), a model of MS, we found that neither cytokine is essential for disease induction, although both have distinct roles....