Project description:Swine influenza virus (SIV) is a prevalent respiratory pathogen in pigs that has deleterious consequences to animal health, production, and public health. Pigs represent an important reservoir for influenza as well as a potential mixing vessel for novel gene reassortments. Despite the central role of the pig in the 2009 pandemic and 2012 variant H3N2 outbreak, much remains unknown about the impact of swine immunity on SIV transmission, pathogenesis, and evolution. An incomplete understanding of interactions between the porcine immune system and SIV has hindered the development of new diagnostic tools and CD8+ T cell influenza epitope based vaccines. In order to address this gap in knowledge, we identified swine leukocyte antigen (SLA) restricted influenza virus peptides presented by swine respiratory epithelial cells using an immunoproteomics approach. The majority of MHC associated peptides belonged to matrix 1, nucleocapsid, and nonstructural 1 proteins. Specific epitopes, such as M1229-242, NS177-89, and NP417-426, may have value in epitope based vaccines. Future investigations examining the potential cross-reactive nature of these peptides are needed to confirm antigen recognition by cytotoxic T lymphocytes and utility as vaccine candidates.
Project description:Triple negative breast cancer is an aggressive phenotypic breast cancer characterized by ER negative, PR negative and Her2 negative immunohistochemistry status. We embarked on a study to explore the transcriptome of Kenyan TNBC patients and identify potential biomarkers specific to Kenyan population. The transcriptome sequencing of tumors from Kenyan TNBC patients and comparisons with African American and Caucasian TNBC transcriptomes revealed several interesting targets and dysregulated pathways.
Project description:Gene expression data from whole-blood collected from Kenyan children with Plasmodium falciparum malaria infection at acute hospital admission (n=15) and at convalescence (n=9). A clinical history design type is where the organisms clinical history of diagnosis, treatments, e.g. vaccinations, surgery etc. Disease State: with Plasmodium falciparum malaria infection at acute hospital admission and at convalescence clinical_history_design
Project description:Gene expression data from whole-blood collected from Kenyan children with Plasmodium falciparum malaria infection at acute hospital admission (n=15) and at convalescence (n=9). A clinical history design type is where the organisms clinical history of diagnosis, treatments, e.g. vaccinations, surgery etc. Disease State: with Plasmodium falciparum malaria infection at acute hospital admission and at convalescence
Project description:Improper use of antibiotics in swine could reduce commensal bacteria and possibly increase pathogen infections via the gut resistome. This study aimed to compare the metaproteomic profiles of gut resistome and related metabolism in the cecal microbiota of fattening pigs raised under antibiotic-free (ABF) conditions with those of ordinary industrial pigs (CTRL).
Project description:Transcriptional profiling of macrophages derived from immune-selected (phagocytosis, complement activity in the alternative pathway, and antibody response after vaccination with swine erysipelas) in comparison with those from normal pigs
Project description:Understanding the pulmonary adaptive immune system of pigs is of importance as respiratory pathogens present a major challenge for swine producers and pigs are increasingly used to model human pulmonary diseases. Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq) has accelerated the characterization of cellular phenotypes in the pig respiratory tract under both healthy and diseased conditions. However, combining scRNAseq with recovery of paired VJ and VDJ T cell receptor (TCR) as well as heavy (IGH) and light (IGL) chains of B cell receptors (BCR) to interrogate receptor repertoires has not to our knowledge been demonstrated for pigs. Here, we developed primers to enrich porcine TCR and BCR chains that are compatible with the 10x Genomics VDJ sequencing protocol. Using these pig-specific assays, we sequenced the T and B cell receptors of cryopreserved lung cells from CD1D-expressing and -deficient pigs after one or two infections with influenza A virus (IAV), a major swine and human respiratory pathogen, to examine whether natural killer T (NKT) cells alter pulmonary TCR and BCR repertoire selection. We also performed paired single-cell RNA and TCR sequencing of FACS-sorted T cells longitudinally sampled from the lungs of IAV-vaccinated and -infected pigs to track clonal expansion in response to IAV exposure. All pigs presented highly diverse repertoires. Pigs re-exposed to influenza antigens from either vaccination or infection exhibited higher numbers of expanded CD4 and CD8 T cell clonotypes with activated phenotypes, suggesting potential IAV reactive T cell populations. Our results demonstrate the utility of high throughput single-cell TCR and BCR sequencing in pigs.
Project description:This study used virological, histological, and global gene expression data to compare the virulence of two 2009 pH1N1 isolates from human (A/California/04/2009) and swine (A/swine/Alberta/25/2009) to that of a 1918-like classical swine influenza virus (A/swine/Iowa/1930) in a pig model of infection. The overall goal of this study was to characterize the clinical, histological, virological and global gene expression responses to three distinct influenza A isolates in an experimental pig model of influenza infection. We compared the pathogenesis of two pH1N1 viruses, one derived from a human patient (A/CA/04/09 [CA09]) and the other from swine (A/swine/Alberta/25/2009 [Alb09]), with that of the 1918-like classical swine influenza virus (A/swine/Iowa/1930 [IA30]) in the pig model. Both pH1N1 isolates induced clinical symptoms such as coughing, sneezing, decreased activity, fever, and labored breathing in challenged pigs, but IA30 virus did not cause any clinical symptoms except fever. Although both the pH1N1 viruses and the IA30 virus caused lung lesions, the pH1N1 viruses were shed from the nasal cavities of challenged pigs whereas the IA30 virus was not. Microarray was used to assess global gene expression in the lungs at 3 and 5 days post-infection. Crossbred pigs fwere obtained from a healthy herd free of SIV and porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus. These studies included two experiments: the classical H1N1 SIV (IA30) study was completed at Kansas State University's biosafety level 2 (BSL-2) facility in compliance with the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee at Kansas State University, and the pH1N1 virus study was completed at the Central States Research Center (CSRC), Inc., BSL-3 facility (Oakland, NE), in compliance with the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee at CSRC. In each experiment, 10 pigs were inoculated with noninfectious cell culture supernatant as controls. For the classical H1N1 SIV experiment, 10 4-week-old crossbred pigs were inoculated intratracheally with 10^6 50% tissue culture infective doses (TCID50)/pig of egg-derived IA30 virus. For the pH1N1 virus experiment, 10 4-week-old crossbred pigs were inoculated intratracheally with 10^6 TCID50/pig of either egg-derived CA/09 or Alb/09 virus. Five animals per group were euthanized at 3 and 5 days postinfection (dpi), respectively.