Prophylactic DNA vaccine targeting Foxp3 + regulatory T cells depletes myeloid-derived suppressor cells and improves anti-melanoma immune responses in a murine model

Regulatory T cells (Treg) and myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) are the two important and interactive immunosuppressive components of the tumor microenvironment that hamper anti-tumor immune responses. Therefore, targeting these two populations together might be beneficial for overcoming immune suppression in the tumor microenvironment. We have recently shown that prophylactic Foxp3 DNA/recombinant protein vaccine (Foxp3 vaccine) promotes immunity against Treg in tumor-free conditions. In the present study, we investigated the immune modulatory effects of a prophylactic regimen of the redesigned Foxp3 vaccine in the B16F10 melanoma model. Our results indicate that Foxp3 vaccination continuously reduces Treg population in both the tumor site and the spleen. Surprisingly, Treg reduction was associated with a significant decrease in the frequency of MDSC, both in the spleen and in the tumor environment. Furthermore, Foxp3 vaccination resulted in a significant reduction of arginase-1(Arg-1)-induced nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), reactive oxygen species (ROS) and suppressed MDSC activity. Moreover, this concurrent depletion restored production of inflammatory cytokine IFN-γ and enhanced tumor-specific CTL response, which subsequently resulted in the reduction of tumor growth and the improved survival rate of vaccinated mice. In conclusion, our results revealed that Foxp3 vaccine promotes an immune response against tumor by targeting both Treg and MDSC, which could be exploited as a potential immunotherapy approach.. © 2017, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature

Prophylactic DNA vaccine targeting Foxp3+regulatory T cells depletes myeloid-derived suppressor cells and improves anti-melanoma immune responses in a murine model

Abstract Regulatory T cells (Treg) and myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) are the two important and interactive immunosuppressive components of the tumor microenvironment that hamper anti-tumor immune responses. Therefore, targeting these two populations together might be beneficial for overcoming immune suppression in the tumor microenvironment. We have recently shown that prophylactic Foxp3 DNA/recombinant protein vaccine (Foxp3 vaccine) promotes immunity against Treg in tumor-free conditions. In the present study, we investigated the immune modulatory effects of a prophylactic regimen of the redesigned Foxp3 vaccine in the B16F10 melanoma model. Our results indicate that Foxp3 vaccination continuously reduces Treg population in both the tumor site and the spleen. Surprisingly, Treg reduction was associated with a significant decrease in the frequency of MDSC, both in the spleen and in the tumor environment. Furthermore, Foxp3 vaccination resulted in a significant reduction of arginase-1(Arg-1)-induced nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), reactive oxygen species (ROS) and suppressed MDSC activity. Moreover, this concurrent depletion restored production of inflammatory cytokine IFN-γ and enhanced tumor-specific CTL response, which subsequently resulted in the reduction of tumor growth and the improved survival rate of vaccinated mice. In conclusion, our results revealed that Foxp3 vaccine promotes an immune response against tumor by targeting both Treg and MDSC, which could be exploited as a potential immunotherapy approach. Keywords Regulatory T cells Myeloid-derived suppressor cells Foxp3 Melanom

The Importance of Escherichia coli O157: H7 in Foodborn Infection

Abstract: Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli O157: H7 is one of the most important causes of bloody diarrhea. This bacterium is able to make bloody diarrhea or Hemorrhagic Colitis (HC) through verotoxin or shigatoxin production, and in acute forms it may lead to Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS) or Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpurea (TTP). Contamination with E. coli O157:H7 usually happens after consumption of animal products especially undercooked meats. The most important reservoir of this bacterium is beef and consumption of undercooked ground beef, especially in children younger than 10 years old, is the most common reason of food infection by this bacterium. Two important biochemical characteristics for detection of E. coli O157: H7 are lack of sorbitol fermentation and absence of glucuronidase. In order to control food infection with this bacterium, foods must be cooked thoroughly until reaching the temperature of at least 68.3°C, in the center. Keywords: Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli, Food contamination, Hemorrhogic Colitis, Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome, Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpure

On use of biometrics in forensics: gait and ear

We describe how gait and ear biometrics could be deployed for use in forensic identification. Biometrics has advanced considerably in recent years, largely by increase in computational power. This has been accompanied by developments in, and proliferation of, surveillance technology. To prevent identification, subjects use evasion, disguise or concealment. The human gait is a candidate for identification since other mechanisms can be completely concealed and only the gait might be perceivable. The advantage of use a human ear is its permanence with increase in age. As such, not only are biometrics ripe for deployment for forensic use, but also ears and gait offer distinct advantages over other biometric modalities

On guided model-based analysis for ear biometrics

As a biometric, ears have major advantage in that they appear to maintain their shape with increasing age. Current approaches have exploited both 2D and 3D images of the ear in human identification. Contending that the ear is mainly a planar shape we use 2D images, which are also consistent with deployment in surveillance and other planar image scenarios. Capitalizing on explicit structures, we propose a new parts-based model which has an advantage in handling noise and occlusion. Our model is learned via a stochastic clustering algorithm and a training set of ear images. In this, the candidates for the model parts are detected using the Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT). We shall review different accounts of ear formation and consider some congenital ear anomalies which discuss apportioning various components to the ear’s complex structure, and illustrate that our parts-based approach is in accordance with this component-wise structure. In recognition, the ears are automatically enrolled and recognized from the parts selected via the model. The performance is evaluated on test sets selected from XM2VTS data. The model achieves promising results recognizing unoccluded ears and for occluded samples its performance is evaluated against PCA and a robust PCA. By results, both in modelling and recognition, our new model-based method does indeed appear to be a promising new approach to ear biometric