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The technology described in this patent application relates to recombinant viruses for use as vaccines. These viruses contain a single or plurality of sequences encoding antigens from pathogenic viruses heterologous to the recombinant virus.

This invention relates to a strain of Moraxella catarrhalis containing a gene mutation that prevents endotoxic lipooligosaccharide (LOS) synthesis and potential use of the mutant for developing novel vaccines against the pathogen, for which there is currently no licensed vaccine. M. catarrhalis is one of the causative agents of otitis media (middle ear infection), sinusitis, and lung infections. The mutant is defective in the lpxA gene, whose enzyme product is relevant in lipid A biosynthesis (lipid A is part of the LOS).

The invention can be used to develop tests that are much more rapid than conventional tests for determining drug resistance. It relates to the discovery that a putative gene of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTb) with no previously identified function is responsible for the ability of the bacteria to activate a class of second line thioamide drugs used for MTb infections. The gene, termed "etaA", codes for the synthesis of a monooxygenase, the enzyme responsible for the oxidative activation of the drugs.

This invention describes methods and compositions of peptides that inhibit the binding of Plasmodium falciparum (P. falciparum) to erythrocytes. Malarial parasites enter the red blood cell through several erythrocyte receptors, each being specific for a given species of Plasmodia. For P. falciparum, the erythrocyte binding antigen (EBA-175) is the ligand of the plasmodia merozoites that interacts with the receptor glycophorin A on the surface of red blood cells.

This technology relates to the use of thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) to induce CD4+ T cell proliferation. This proliferation could be of particular relevance for patients in whom this cell population has been significantly reduced by HIV/AIDS or other conditions resulting in immunodeficiency. The proliferation of isolated CD4+ T cells can be induced through direct contact with TSLP or a nucleic acid encoding TSLP.

A stable line of human T cells (ACH-2) was developed in which cells infected chronically with the AIDS virus (HIV) remained nonproductive prior to exposure to phorbol esters or human cytokines. This situation mimics the latent state of HIV and the development of AIDS in humans and indicates that the full-blown disease may be triggered by cellular-derived substances (e.g., cytokines). This is the first description of such a cell line.

The identified technologies describe self-replicating infectious recombinant paramyxoviruses with one or more attenuating mutations, such as a separate variant polynucleotide encoding a P protein and a separate monocistronic polynucleotide encoding a V protein, or at least one temperature sensitive mutation and one non-temperature sensitive mutation. Compositions and methods for recovering, making and using the infectious, recombinant paramyxoviruses as described are also included (e.g. recombinant human parainfluenza virus type 2 (HPIV2)).

Monoclonal antibodies directed at the proteins of murine leukemia viruses (MuLVs) have some value as immunological reagents, but differ greatly in their applicability. The kit described in this invention uses a monoclonal antibody designated 83A25, which identifies almost all ecotropic, xenotropic, polytropic, and amphotropic MuLVs. It can be used in a wide variety of procedures, including focal immunofluorescence assays on live or fixed monolayers, immunoblotting, immunoprecipitation, immunohistochemical, and flow cytometric procedures.

The invention discloses a vaccine which comprises lipooligosaccharide (LOS) isolated from N. meningitidis and conjugated to a carrier protein. The invention also discloses a method of making the acellular vaccine. The method consists of two main steps. In the first step the lipooligosaccharide (LOS), chosen so it does not contain the lacto-N-neotetraose human antigen (LNnT), is detoxified by a novel procedure which uses hydrazine to remove the O-linked fatty acids. In the second step, the detoxified LOS (dLOS) is covalently conjugated to a carrier protein such as Tetanus Toxoid (TT).

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) chronically infects over 300 million people worldwide. Many of them will die of chronic hepatitis or hepatocellular carcinoma. The present technology relates to the isolation and characterization of a novel neutralizing chimpanzee monoclonal antibody to HBV. The antibody was identified through a combinatorial antibody library constructed from bone marrow cells of a chimpanzee experimentally infected with HBV. The selected monoclonal antibody has been shown to react equally well with wild-type HBV and the most common neutralization escape mutant variants.