Construction and analysis of an experimental Streptococcus iniae DNA vaccine

Streptococcus iniae is a severe aquaculture pathogen that can also infect humans and animal. A putative secretory antigen, Slat 0, was identified from a pathogenic S. iniae strain by in vivo-induced antigen technology. Using turbot as an animal model, the immunoprotective effect of Sia10 was examined as a DNA vaccine in the form of plasmid pSia10, which expresses sia10 under the cytomegalovirus immediate-early promoter. In fish vaccinated with pSia10, transcription of sia10 was detected in muscle, liver, spleen, and kidney at 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, and 49 days post-vaccination. In addition, production of Sia10 protein was also detected in the muscle tissues of pSia10-vaccinated fish. Fish vaccinated with pSia10 exhibited a relative percent survival (RPS) of 73.9% and 92.3%, respectively, when challenged with high and low doses (producing a cumulative mortality of 92% and 52%, respectively, in the control groups) of S. iniae. Immunological and transcriptional analyses showed that vaccination with pSia10(i) induced much stronger chemiluminescence response and significantly higher levels of nitric oxide production and acid phosphatase activity in head kidney macrophages; (ii) caused the production of specific serum antibodies, which afforded apparent immunoprotection when transferred passively into naive fish; and (iii) upregulated the expression of the genes encoding proteins that are possibly involved in both innate and adaptive immune responses. Taken together, these results indicated that pSia10 is an effective vaccine candidate and may be used in the control of S. iniae infection in aquaculture. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Molecular cloning, characterization and expression of a novel serine proteinase inhibitor gene in bay scallops (Argopecten irradians, Lamarck 1819)

Serine protease inhibitors, critical regulators of endogenous proteases, are found in all multicellular organisms and play crucial roles in host physiological and immunological effector mechanisms. The first mollusk serine proteinase inhibitor (designated AISPI) cDNA was obtained from the bay scallop Argopecten irradians by randomly sequencing a whole tissue cDNA library and rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE). The full-length cDNA of the scallop serine protease inhibitor was 1020 bp, consisting of a 5'-terminal untranslated region (UTR) of 39 bp, a 3'-terminal UTR of 147 bp with a canonical polyadenylation signal sequence AATAAA and a poly(A) tail, and an open reading frame of 834 bp. The AISPI cDNA encoded a polypeptide of 278 amino acids with a putative signal peptide of 22 amino acids and a mature protein of 256 amino acids. The deduced amino-acid sequence of AISPI contained six tandem and homologous domains similar to that of Kazal-type serine protease inhibitors, including the conserved sequence C-X(7)-C-X(6)-Y-X(3)-C-X(2,3)-C and six cysteine residues responsible for the formation of disulfide bridges, indicating that the AISPI protein from bay scallop should be a member of the Kazal-type serine protease inhibitor family. The temporal expression of AISPI was measured by semi-quantitative RT-PCR after injury or bacterial challenge. After the adductor muscle was wounded or injected with Vibrio anguillarum, the expression of AISPI mRNA in hemolymph was up-regulated and reached the maximum level at 8 and 16 h, respectively, and then progressively dropped back to the original level. The results indicated that AISPI could play an important role in injury healing and immune response in mollusks as it could be induced by injury and bacterial challenge. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

栉孔扇贝与海湾扇贝免疫学比较研究

扇贝是我国重要的海水养殖品种，但自1997年以来，养殖扇贝陆续爆发的大规模死亡，不但造成了巨大的经济损失，而且直接威胁到现有产业的生存和发展。引起扇贝大规模死亡原因是多方面的，其主要原因是病原滋生、养殖环境恶化和种质衰退。因此，深入研究扇贝免疫防御机制，探讨提高机体抗病力的有效途径和方法，改良种质和培育抗病品系，促进我国扇贝养殖业的健康、可持续发展。本文通过比较栉孔扇贝和海湾扇贝正常状态和重金属污染胁迫下相关免疫指标的变化及HSP70和HSP90在重金属胁迫后表达规律，以期更好的了解贝类的防御机制，为扇贝病害防治提供资料。 本研究采用流式细胞仪技术对栉孔扇贝和海湾扇贝血细胞死亡率、细胞吞噬率和呼吸爆发进行了测定，发现正常状态下两种扇贝的细胞死亡率相差不大，呼吸爆发的基础值相差也不大，而海湾扇贝细胞吞噬率显著高于栉孔扇贝。在血淋巴和肝胰腺中，海湾扇贝SOD、ACP酶活性均显著高于栉孔扇贝；海湾扇贝的MDA含量也高于栉孔扇贝，但差异不显著。鳗弧菌感染实验发现，海湾扇贝累积死亡率远低于栉孔扇贝。上述结果表明，海湾扇贝对细菌等异物的吞噬和杀灭能力以及机体自身的抗氧化能力高于栉孔扇贝，这为海湾扇贝比栉孔扇贝具有更高的抗逆性提供了证据。 不同浓度Pb2+刺激后，海湾扇贝血细胞的死亡率明显低于栉孔扇贝。海湾扇贝细胞吞噬率和呼吸爆发均高于栉孔扇贝。对两种扇贝体液免疫指标的测定发现，海湾扇贝的SOD、ACP活性和MDA含量均高于栉孔扇贝。结果表明，在Pb2+刺激下两种扇贝都处于重金属氧化胁迫下，其免疫系统均受到了影响，但相同剂量的Pb2+对两种扇贝的毒害程度不同，海湾扇贝受到的影响要低于栉孔扇贝。 采用同源克隆和cDNA 末端快速扩增（RACE）技术，从海湾扇贝血淋巴中克隆到了热休克蛋白90（AiHSP90）基因。AiHSP90的cDNA序列全长为2669bp，其中5' 非编码区（UTR）为90bp，3' UTR为44bp，开放阅读框（Open Reading Frame, ORF）包括2175bp，2524-2528位AATAA为推测的AiHSP90基因的 mRNA 多聚腺苷酸加尾信号（Polyadenylation Signal）。开放阅读框编码724个氨基酸残基，推测的理论分子量为83.08 kDa，等电点为4.81。 利用荧光实时定量PCR 技术检测了AiHSP90基因在革兰氏阴性菌鳗弧菌和革兰氏阳性菌藤黄微球菌感染后不同时间点相对于β-actin基因的表达。在鳗弧菌和藤黄微球菌刺激后，除72h外AiHSP90均上调表达，在9h其mRNA表达达到最大值，分别约为空白组的6.8倍和3倍；随后随着时间的推移，其表达下降，在48h恢复到接近空白组的水平；到72h时降到最低点。鳗弧菌对AiHSP90的诱导比藤黄微球菌要高，这也反映出鳗弧菌对海湾扇贝有更强的毒力，诱导的HSP90表达也更强。本研究首次揭示出在软体动物中HSP90在细菌感染条件下的表达情况，结果表明海湾扇贝AiHSP90参与了机体对细菌感染的应答。 采用荧光实时定量PCR技术，对栉孔扇贝和海湾扇贝在不同浓度、不同种类重金属胁迫后HSP70和HSP90基因表达规律进行了比较。结果显示，镉和铅对栉孔扇贝处理10天后即诱导HSP70以较高水平表达，20天后镉处理组HSP70恢复到与对照接近的水平，而在铅处理组也呈现出下降的趋势。而海湾扇贝HSP70基因表达与栉孔扇贝恰好相反，处理20天后其HSP70表达才出现较高水平。铜离子处理对诱导两种扇贝HSP70的影响相似，对栉孔扇贝HSP70的诱导强度更大。对于同一种重金属，不同的浓度诱导的HSP70表达也各不相同。而对于HSP90，海湾扇贝在受到三种重金属刺激后HSP90的表达量均高于栉孔扇贝，而且长时间的刺激（20天）诱导了更高的HSP90基因表达。不同的浓度的同一种重金属离子诱导的HSP90表达也各不相同。这些结果表明，在重金属胁迫下HSP70以及HSP90在栉孔扇贝和海湾扇贝中均表现出不同的应答方式。结合前面海湾扇贝抗逆性较强的综合结果，两种扇贝热休克蛋白基因表达的比较提示我们栉孔扇贝HSP70的激烈反应预示着抗逆能力的不足，而海湾扇贝HSP90的高表达却预示着更强的抗逆能力，有待于更多应激实验如热刺激、病原刺激等的进一步验证。

STARVATION-INDUCED CHANGES OF HEMOCYTE PARAMETERS IN THE ZHIKONG SCALLOP CHLAMYS FARRERI

Substantial nutritional and energetic demands m-e associated with immune activation and the maintenance of an efficient immune system. One-year-old Chlamys farreri (Jones and Preston) scallops were maintained ill lantern nets ill different nutritional conditions (satiation and starvation) for 40 days. After the 40-day treatments, the condition index and the total hemocyte count (THC) decreased significantly in the starved group compared with the satiated and initial control groups. The percentage of phagocytic hemocytes also was significantly reduced with starvation. In contrast. no significant effect of starvation was observed oil reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. The acid phosphatase (ACP) activities in cell-free hemolymph increased significantly in scallops in starved and satiated treatments compared with the initial control. whereas ACP activity in hemocyte lysate was significantly lower ill the starved group. These results indicate that starvation stress compromises immunological activities of scallops.

Investigating the evolution and stability of a resource limited artificial immune system.

Timmis J and Neal M J. Investigating the evolution and stability of a resource limited artificial immune system. In Proceedings of GECCO - special workshop on artificial immune systems, pages 40-41. AAAI press, 2000.

How do we evaluate Artificial Immune Systems?

RAE2008

Doença de Crohn

Projeto de Pós-Graduação/Dissertação apresentado à Universidade Fernando Pessoa como parte dos requisitos para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Ciências Farmacêuticas

Engenharia de Tecidos na substituição de tecido ósseo

Projeto de Pós-Graduação/Dissertação apresentado à Universidade Fernando Pessoa como parte dos requisitos para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Ciências Farmacêuticas

Psoríase

Projeto de Pós-Graduação/Dissertação apresentado à Universidade Fernando Pessoa como parte dos requisitos para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Ciências Farmacêuticas

Novos sistemas terapêuticos de administração transcutânea

Projeto de Pós-Graduação/Dissertação apresentado à Universidade Fernando Pessoa como parte dos requisitos para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Ciências Farmacêuticas

B Cell Activation in Insulin Resistance and Obesity

Our group has demonstrated that inflammatory diseases such as type 2 diabetes (DM), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and periodontal disease (PD) are associated with altered B cell function that may contribute to disease pathogenesis. B cells were found to be highly activated with characteristics of inflammatory cells. Obesity is a pre-disease state for cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes and is considered a state of chronic inflammation. Therefore, we sought to better characterize B cell function and phenotype in obese patients. We demonstrate that (Toll-like receptor) TLR4 and CD36 expression by B cells is elevated in obese subjects, suggesting increased sensing of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and other TLR ligands. These ligands may be of microbial, from translocation from a leaky gut, or host origin. To better assess microbial ligand burden and host response in the bloodstream, we measured LPS binding protein (LBP), bacterial/permeability increasing protein (BPI), and high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1). Thus far, our data demonstrate an increase in LBP in DM and obesity indicating increased responses to TLR ligands in the blood. Interestingly, B cells responded to certain types of LPS by phosphorylating extracellular-signal-regulated kinases (ERK) 1/2. A better understanding of the immunological state of obesity and the microbial and endogenous TLR ligands that may be activating B cells will help identify novel therapeutics to reduce the risk of more dangerous conditions, such as cardiovascular disease.

Investigation of toll-like receptor tolerance in the regulation of inflammation

Inflammation is a complex and highly organised immune response to microbes and tissue injury. Recognition of noxious stimuli by pathogen recognition receptor families including Toll-like receptors results in the expression of hundreds of genes that encode cytokines, chemokines, antimicrobials and regulators of inflammation. Regulation of TLR activation responses is controlled by TLR tolerance which induces a global change in the cellular transcriptional expression profile resulting in gene specific suppression and induction of transcription. In this thesis the plasticity of TLR receptor tolerance is investigated using an in vivo, transcriptomics and functional approach to determine the plasticity of TLR tolerance in the regulation of inflammation. Firstly, using mice deficient in the negative regulator of TLR gene transcription, Bcl-3 (Bcl-3-/-) in a model of intestinal inflammation, we investigated the role of Bcl-3 in the regulation of intestinal inflammatory responses. Our data revealed a novel role for Bcl-3 in the regulation of epithelial cell proliferation and regeneration during intestinal inflammation. Furthermore this data revealed that increased Bcl-3 expression contributes to the development of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Secondly, we demonstrate that lipopolysaccharide tolerance is transient and recovery from LPS tolerance results in polarisation of macrophages to a previously un-described hybrid state (RM). In addition, we identified that RM cells have a unique transcriptional profile with suppression and induction of genes specific to this polarisation state. Furthermore, using a functional approach to characterise the outcomes of TLR tolerance plasticity, we demonstrate that cytokine transcription is uncoupled from cytokine secretion in macrophages following recovery from LPS tolerance. Here we demonstrate a novel mechanism of regulation of TLR tolerance through suppression of cytokine secretion in macrophages. We show that TNF-α is alternatively trafficked towards a degradative intracellular compartment. These studies demonstrate that TLR tolerance is a complex immunological response with the plasticity of this state playing an important role in the regulation of inflammation.

Helicobacter pylori modulation of gastric and duodenal mucosal T cell cytokine secretions in children compared with adults.

BACKGROUND: In contrast to adults, ulcers are un-common in Helicobacter pylori-infected children. Since immunological determinants influence the outcome of H. pylori infection, we have investigated mucosal T cell responses in H. pylori-infected children and compared them with those of adults and negative controls. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Mucosal biopsies were obtained from 43 patients undergoing an upper GI endoscopy for dyspeptic symptoms. The concentrations of released cytokines and the density of CD3+, CD25+ and CD69+cells were evaluated by flow cytometry, and the numbers of cytokine-secreting cells were measured by ELISPOT. RESULTS: The numbers of isolated antral CD3+ lymphocytes were only significantly raised in infected adults compared with noninfected controls (p < 0.05), whereas the proportion of CD3+ cells expressing activation markers (CD25 or CD69) remained low. In the stomach, IFN-gamma concentrations increased in infected children and infected adults compared with controls (p < 0.05), but IFN-gamma concentrations were tenfold lower in children than in adults (p < 0.01). IL-2, IL-4, IL-10 and TNF-alpha concentrations were similar in infected and in uninfected children and adults. In contrast, in the duodenum, IFN-gamma, as well as IL-4 and IL-10 concentrations were only increased in infected children compared with controls (p < 0.05). The concentrations of these cytokines were similar in both groups of adults who, however, like children, displayed a higher number of duodenal IL-4-secreting cells compared to controls (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: These results suggest that IFN-gamma secretion in the stomach of H. pylori-infected patients is lower in children than in adults. This could protect children from development of severe gastro-duodenal diseases such as ulcer disease. In addition, infected patients are characterised by a dysregulation of the mucosal cytokine secretion at distance from the infection site.

Patient-centred screening for primary immunodeficiency: a multi-stage diagnostic protocol designed for non-immunologists.

Efficient early identification of primary immunodeficiency disease (PID) is important for prognosis, but is not an easy task for non-immunologists. The Clinical Working Party of the European Society for Immunodeficiencies (ESID) has composed a multi-stage diagnostic protocol that is based on expert opinion, in order to increase the awareness of PID among doctors working in different fields. The protocol starts from the clinical presentation of the patient; immunological skills are not needed for its use. The multi-stage design allows cost-effective screening for PID within the large pool of potential cases in all hospitals in the early phases, while more expensive tests are reserved for definitive classification in collaboration with an immunologist at a later stage. Although many PIDs present in childhood, others may present at any age. The protocols presented here are therefore aimed at both adult physicians and paediatricians. While designed for use throughout Europe, there will be national differences which may make modification of this generic algorithm necessary.

Latent tuberculosis in a newborn: diagnostic challenges.

In countries where the incidence of tuberculosis is low, perinatal tuberculosis is seldom diagnosed. With increasing numbers of human immunodeficiency virus-infected people and increasing immigrant population from high tuberculosis incidence countries, one might expect perinatal tuberculosis to become more frequent. Early recognition of newborns at risk for perinatal tuberculosis infection is of utmost importance to prevent disease by chemoprophylaxis. We describe a case of latent perinatal tuberculosis infection in a newborn infected from a mother with extrapulmonary primary tuberculosis. Tuberculin skin test was negative, and latent tuberculosis infection was eventually diagnosed by specific immunological tests. We discuss the difficulties in diagnosis of recent tuberculosis infection in neonates and infants, and the risk factors for vertical transmission of tuberculosis, which need to be taken into account in considering the need for chemoprophylaxis in the newborn. Although perinatal TB infection is a rare condition and diagnosis is difficult due to poor diagnostic testing in pregnancy and newborns, a high index of suspicion is needed to limit the diagnostic delay and to avoid progression to perinatal TB disease.