Yellow Fever Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Yellow Fever, including details on immunization, vaccines, symptoms, transmission.

Comprehensive analysis of T cell epitope discovery strategies using 17DD yellow fever virus structural proteins and BALB/c (H2(d)) mice model.

Maciel M, Kellathur SN, Chikhlikar P, Dhalia R, Sidney J, Sette A, August TJ, Marques ET

Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Pharmacology Department, Baltimore, USA.

Immunomics research uses in silico epitope prediction, as well as in vivo and in vitro approaches. We inoculated BALB/c (H2(d)) mice with 17DD yellow fever vaccine to investigate the correlations between approaches used for epitope discovery: ELISPOT assays, binding assays, and prediction software. Our results showed a good agreement between ELISPOT and binding assays, which seemed to correlate with the protein immunogenicity. PRED(BALB/c) prediction software partially agreed with the ELISPOT and binding assay results, but presented low specificity. The use of prediction software to exclude peptides containing no epitopes, followed by high throughput screening of the remaining peptides by ELISPOT, and the use of MHC-biding assays to characterize the MHC restrictions demonstrated to be an efficient strategy. The results allowed the characterization of 2 MHC class I and 17 class II epitopes in the envelope protein of the YF virus in BALB/c (H2(d)) mice.

Published 26 June 2008 in Virology.
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Articles on Yellow Fever published 25 June 2008:

HUMAN PENTASTOMIASIS IN CHINA: CASE REPORT AND LITERATURE REVIEW.   J Parasitol.

A 13-yr-old boy was admitted because of persistent fever, abdominal pain and diarrhea for 3 mo. Abdomen CT revealed hepatomegaly and multiple nodular low-density pathological changes. At laparotomy considerable yellow and turbid ascites were seen in the abdominal cavity and miliary nodules were noted on the surface of the omentum majus, liver, and small intestine wall. Histological examination revealed parenchymal tubercles containing several worms. Pathological diagnosis was parasitic ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on Yellow Fever published 23 June 2008:

Sexual dimorphism of humoral immunity with human vaccines.   Vaccine, 26(29): 3551-5.

It has been contended that limited data exist on sex-difference in immune response with vaccines in humans. However, a comprehensive search of the literature retrieved 97 studies with 14 vaccines influenza (7 studies), hepatitis A (15 studies), hepatitis B (50 studies), pnuemococcal polysaccaride (4 studies), diphtheria (4 studies), rubella (3 studies), measles (2 studies), yellow fever (3 studies), meningococcal A (1 study), meningococcal C (1 study), tetanus (1 study), brucella (1 study), ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

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A survey was carried out in five rural communities that enjoy agricultural extension services from the University of Agriculture Abeokuta. Questionnaires and focus group discussions (FGDs) were used to assess perceptions and home management practices of malaria infection. The inhabitants considered malaria (which they refer to as "Iba Otutu") has the least dangerous of other types of common fever such as yellow fever and typhoid fever. A vast majority of the respondents (73%) ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

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Articles on Yellow Fever published 19 June 2008:

Cloning, characterization, and expression of microRNAs from the Asian malaria mosquito, Anopheles stephensi.   BMC Genomics, 9: 244.

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The growth of air travel has diminished the barriers to the spread of yellow fever, posing a threat to regions that have not previously been reached by the disease but are considered receptive, including the Middle East, coastal East Africa, the Indian subcontinent, Asia and Australia. For many decades, vaccination against yellow fever has been required for travelers entering many countries with receptive mosquito vectors in order to prevent the importation of yellow fever virus from a country ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

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Articles on Yellow Fever published 16 June 2008:

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Similar to many flavivirus types including Dengue and yellow fever viruses, the nonstructural NS3 multifunctional protein of West Nile virus (WNV) with an N-terminal serine proteinase domain and an RNA triphosphatase, an NTPase domain, and an RNA helicase in the C-terminal domain is implicated in both polyprotein processing and RNA replication and is therefore a promising drug target. To exhibit its proteolytic activity, NS3 proteinase requires the presence of the cofactor encoded by the ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

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