Dengue fever is a rapidly growing concern to human health and is currently the most prevalent mosquito-borne viral disease worldwide. Although there are several vaccine candidates being tested in clinical trials, there are no vaccines publicly available to prevent this disease. Plant-based vaccines are rapidly becoming viable alternatives to traditional animal-based vaccines because they are safe, easy to manufacture, and more cost-efficient. The purpose of this project is to develop a vaccine against the dengue virus by producing a recombinant DENV2 protein, engineered by Dr. David Lo and his lab at University of California Riverside, in Nicotiana benthamiana plants through Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV) infection. Initial attempts to ligate the complete DENV2 epitope, a combination of hybrid flagellin sequences and the envelope protein from dengue viral serotype 2, into the pJL TRBO vector were incompatible with established protocols. However, a proof of concept test that replaced the DENV2 envelope protein with Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) successfully inserted the new sequence into pJL TRBO. In the future, the DENV2 envelope protein sequence will be re-inserted into the construct and updated protocols will be repeated for DENV2 protein expression. The recombinant DENV2 proteins will be extracted from the plants after signs of infection become apparent and tested for their ability to induce an immunogenic response that produces pathogen-specific antibodies.

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A recent study showed that a polymorphism ~35kb upstream of the HLA-C gene (-35 SNP) correlates with host control of HIV-1 in Caucasians, with the minor allele (C) associating with significantly lower set point viral loads than the major allele (T). A link between viral load and HLA-C is suggested by linkage of the two SNP alleles with different HLA-C alleles and by the fact that HLA-C, in contrast to HLA-A and -B, is not down-regulated by HIV-1 Nef protein. In addition, the -35C variant has been shown to associate with higher HLA-C messenger RNA expression in EBV-transformed B cell lines. We initially propose that increased surface expression of HLA-C in subjects with the protective SNP leads to increased breadth and magnitude of HLA-C restricted T cell responses, explaining the decrease in viral load in these subjects. This study initially investigates whether the -35 SNP correlates with the surface level of HLA-C using the monoclonal antibodies DT9, which recognises both HLA-C and HLA-E, and 3D12, which is specific for HLA-E. The lymphocytes from -35 CC subjects expressed a significantly higher level of surface HLA-C when compared to those from -35 TT subjects, but this difference in HLA-C expression can be attributed primarily to the very low expression of a single allelic product, HLA-Cw*07. Increased surface HLA-C should translate to functional differences between CC and TT subjects. This study confirmed that HLA-C restricted CD8 T cell responses against HIV-1 do exist, even for HLA-Cw*07, but represent a minority of total T cell responses. They were detected in all -35 SNP genotypes but there were no functional differences, making it unlikely that the protective effect of this SNP on viral load set point could be accounted for solely by HLA-C restricted T cell responses. Finally, a viral suppression assay was used to investigate the capacity of CD8 T cells to suppress HIV-1 replication in Caucasian and African subjects. We provide evidence that the -35 SNP effect on viral load is indeed T cell mediated. However, we suggest that the protective effect of the -35 SNP on viral load set point manifests as a result of linkage disequilibrium of this polymorphism with both favourable and unfavourable HLA-B and HLA-C alleles.

Periodontitis is a biofilm-initiated inflammatory disease, resulting in soft tissue damage and alveolar bone loss. A nucleic acid sensor, toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9), has been recently implicated in periodontal inflammation. This study utilized an in vivo periodontitis model using TLR9 knockout (TLR9-/-) mice to assess the role of TLR9 in periodontitis. Significant bone loss was observed in wild type, but not in TLR9-/- mice. Further experiments using ex vivo assays revealed significantly higher IL-6 production in splenocytes of wild type mice compared to knockout cells in response to Porphyromonas gingivalis (a keystone pathogen for periodontitis) challenge. In conclusion, TLR9 contributes to periodontal inflammation through promoting a heightened inflammatory response. Therapeutics targeted to TLR9 may be beneficial to control periodontal disease.

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