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Airway diseases, such as Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), constitute a major health burden worldwide. It is estimated, for example, that nearly 15.0% of the adult population in the US are affected with such diseases, and the economic cost burden is over $23 billion annually. Unfortunately, the current options for treatment of such diseases are quite limited, consisting only of bronchodilators and inhaled steroids. The need for a novel and more effective class of therapeutics agents is imperative.

Salen-manganese compounds are synthetic, stable, low toxicity, low cost agents that may provide protection from immune reaction-related oxidative cell damage associated with many illnesses. In particular, oxidative cell damage has been associated with many viral infections including influenza. This invention demonstrates that treating mice with salen-manganese compounds, after lethal pandemic influenza virus infection, significantly enhances survival. Salen-manganese treatment also reduces lung pathology and also improved cellular recovery and repair.

NIH inventors at the Vaccine Research Center have developed a novel influenza virus hemagglutinin (HA)-ferritin nanoparticle influenza vaccine that is easily manufactured, potent, and elicits broadly neutralizing influenza antibodies against multiple strains of influenza. This novel influenza nanoparticle vaccine elicited two types of broadly neutralizing, cross-protective antibodies, one directed to the highly conserved HA stem and a second proximal to the conserved receptor binding site (RBS) of the viral HA, providing a new platform for universal and seasonal influenza.

There are two related technologies, the first being small molecule inhibitors of the malarial plasmodial surface anion channel (PSAC) and the second being the PSAC protein itself as a vaccine candidate. The PSAC protein is produced by the malaria parasite within host erythrocytes and is crucial for mediating nutrient uptake. In vitro data show that the PSAC inhibitors are able to inhibit growth of malaria parasites, have high specificity, and low toxicity.

There is no vaccine for malaria, and there is growing resistance to existing anti-malarial drugs. Sexual stage-specific antigens are of interest as vaccine candidates because disruption of these antigens would reduce the fertility and, thus, the infectivity of the parasite.

JC Virus causes a fatal disease in the brain called progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) that occurs in many patients with immunocompromised conditions. The finding of JCV DNA in the patients with neurological symptoms of PML is a diagnostic criterion and is needed to confirm the diagnosis of PML to rule out other neurological conditions. Certain JC virus variants are known to have a greater association with PML. For example, "Prototype" JC virus is far more pathogenic than "Archetype" JC virus.

The NIH announces a novel method for fast, simple, and accurate detection of nucleic acids outside the modern laboratory. Nucleic acid testing is highly specific and often provides definitive identification of a disease or pathogen. Methods to detect nucleic acid sequences and identify a disease or pathogen are dominated by PCR, but applying PCR-based techniques in remote settings is challenging. Researchers at the NIH have developed a universal, colorimetric, nucleic acid-responsive diagnostic system that uses two short peptide nucleic acid (PNA) probes and does not rely on PCR.

The invention provides novel vectors, attenuated pathogens, compositions, methods and kits for preventing and/or treating chlamydia infections.

Parvovirus B19 (B19V) infection causes fifth disease, a disease characterized by rashes to the face and other parts of the body that primarily affects children. However, adults can also develop fifth disease and it can lead to more severe conditions. Patients that are immunocompromised, such as those who are HIV infected, organ transplant recipients, and cancer patients, can be particularly susceptible to more severe outcomes from B19V infection. Infection can also cause anemia and in pregnant women, it can lead to hydrops fetalis.

This technology describes recombinant viruses that have weakened ability to establish and/or maintain latency and their use as live vaccines. The viruses have one or more genetic mutations that allow for continued replication but that inhibit latency. The vaccine materials and methods for their construction are exemplified with the virus that causes chickenpox and whose latent infection results in shingles, a condition that affects up to an estimated 1 million people per year in the United States alone. Additionally, there are veterinary applications of this technology.