The present invention relates to a bee venom-purifying method comprising a virus clearance process and a composition for preventing or treating inflammatory disease by using same, the method comprising the steps of: (a) preparing a bee venom solution containing bee venom; (b) adjusting the pH of the bee venom solution prepared in step (a) into 2.0 to 4.0 by acid treatment to primarily deactivate viruses; and (c) filtering the pH-adjusted bee venom solution of step (b) through a nanofilter of 10 to 20 nm to secondarily remove viruses.

Provided herein are agents, compositions, and methods useful for animal health, e.g., for altering the level, activity, or metabolism of one or more microorganisms resident in a host insect (e.g., arthropod, e.g., insect, e.g., pathogen vector), the alteration resulting in a decrease in the fitness of the host. The invention features a composition that includes an agent (e.g., phage, peptide, small molecule, antibiotic, or combinations thereof) that can alter the host's microbiota in a manner that is detrimental to the host. By disrupting microbial levels, microbial activity, microbial metabolism, or microbial diversity, the agents described herein may be used to decrease the fitness of a variety of insects that carry vector-borne pathogens that cause disease in animals.

Antibodies specific for royalactin (RA) can be used in methods for purifying royalactin, including native royalactin. These methods produce can produce compositions enriched for native royalactin. The purified royalactin can be used to produce cosmetic products that include native royalactin. An isolated nucleic acid encodes a monoclonal antibody that binds specifically to royalactin.

In one aspect, photoactive compositions are described herein for targeted or selective delivery of therapeutic agents to diseased tissue and/or diseased sites within a patient. A photoactive composition comprises a membrane-based carrier and a photoactivated lytic component coupled to the membrane-based carrier, the photoactivated lytic component comprising a lysing agent and photolabile lytic blocking agent.

A method including the process steps of insertion of a gene to be expressed into the plasmid carrying AOX1 promoter (i), cloning of plasmid carrying gene (ii), transfer of recombinant plasmid carrying AOX1 promoter and gene to expression host (iii) and providing both induction of AOX1 promoter and expression of associated heterologous gene, using a nitric oxide donor (iv). The method enables expression of various genes of various microorganisms, plants, animals and human, and thus extracellular and/or intracellular production of various recombinant proteins.

Disclosed herein are novel synthetic polypeptides and uses thereof in the preparation of liposomes. According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the synthetic polypeptide comprises a membrane lytic motif, a masking motif, and a linker configured to link the membrane lytic motif and the masking motif. The linker is cleavable by a stimulus, such as, light, protease, or phosphatase. Once being coupled to a liposome, the exposure to the stimulus cleaves the linker that results in the separation of the masking motif from the membrane lytic motif, which in turn exerts membrane lytic activity on the liposome that leads to the collapse of the intact structure of the liposome, and releases the agent encapsulated in the liposome to the target site. Also disclosed herein are methods of diagnosing or treating a disease in a subject by use of the present liposomes.

Provided herein are methods and compositions useful for human health, e.g., for targeting one or more microorganisms resident in a host insect (e.g., arthropod, e.g., insect, e.g., pathogen vector), the modulation resulting in a decrease in the fitness of the host. The invention features a composition that includes a modulating agent (e.g., phage, peptide, small molecule, antibiotic, or combinations thereof) that can alter the host's microbiota in a manner that is detrimental to the host. By disrupting microbial levels, microbial activity, microbial metabolism, or microbial diversity, the modulating agent described herein may be used to decrease the fitness of a variety of insects that carry vector-home pathogens that cause disease in humans.

The present invention provides improved LAMP Constructs comprising specific fragments of the LAMP lumenal domain to deliver allergens to immune cells for enhanced processing. These LAMP Constructs can be used for the treatment of disease and in particular allergic reactions and/or allergies. The improved LAMP Constructs allow for presentation of properly configured three dimensional epitopes for production of an immune response when administered to a subject. The improved LAMP Constructs can be multivalent molecules, and/or can be provided as part of a multivalent vaccine containing two or more LAMP Constructs.

Described herein are peptibodies that can contain a TertiapinQ peptide, formulations thereof, and uses thereof. In some embodiments, the peptibody can include a first monomer and a second monomer, wherein each monomer can include an Fc polypeptide, a first TertiapinQ peptide, wherein the N-terminus of the first TertiapinQ peptide can be linked to the C-terminus of the Fc polypeptide via a first linker, and wherein the first monomer and the second monomer can be attached via a disulfide bridge between the Fc polypeptide of the first monomer and the Fc polypeptide of the second monomer. The compositions and formulations thereof can be used to treat atrial fibrillation.

The present invention provides silk proteins, as well as nucleic acids encoding these proteins. The present invention also provides recombinant cells and/or organisms which synthesize silk proteins. Silk proteins of the invention can be used for a variety of purposes such as in the manufacture of personal care products, plastics, textiles, and biomedical products.