An isolated expression enhancer active in a plant, portion of a plant or plant cell, the expression enhancer is provided. The isolated expression enhancer may be selected from the group consisting of nbMT78 (SEQ ID NO:1); nbATL75 (SEQ ID NO:2); nbDJ46 (SEQ ID NO:3); nbCHP79 (SEQ ID NO:4); nbEN42 (SEQ ID NO:5); atHSP69 (SEQ ID NO:6); atGRP62 (SEQ ID NO:7); atPK65 (SEQ ID NO:8); atRP46 (SEQ ID NO:9); nb30S72 (SEQ ID NO:10); nbGT61 (SEQ ID NO:11); nbPV55 (SEQ ID NO:12); nbPPI43 (SEQ ID NO:13); nbPM64 (SEQ ID NO:14); and nbH2A86 (SEQ ID NO:15). Methods for using the isolated expression enhancer are also provided.

The disclosure provides methods and compositions utilizing recombinant nucleic acid constructs or a replication incompetent virus-like particle encoding a chemokine, cytokine, or apoptosis inducing protein (e.g. Caspase 9 (Casp9)), or other toxins in a form which can only be transcribed in the presence of a viral polymerase. These methods can be adapted to target many viral infections and reduce or eliminate viral load, and provide a fundamentally different treatment for viral infections.

Improved anti-HPV immunogens and nucleic acid molecules that encode them are disclosed. Immunogens disclosed include those having consensus HPV39 E6E7 and HPV45 E6E7. Pharmaceutical composition, recombinant vaccines comprising DNA plasmid and live attenuated vaccines are disclosed as well methods of inducing an immune response in an individual against HPV are disclosed.

Methods to create barcoded influenza viruses without disrupting the function of the viral proteins and the proper packaging of the viral genome segments are described. The barcoded influenza viruses can be used within deep mutational scanning libraries to map influenza resistance mutations to therapeutic treatments. The libraries can also be used to predict influenza strains that may become resistant to therapeutic treatments and/or more easily evolve to infect new species. The libraries include features that allow efficient collection and assessment of informative data, obviating bottlenecks of previous approaches.

The disclosure provides methods for generating an optimized nucleotide sequence encoding an engineered influenza structural protein and the optimized nucleotide sequences obtained therefrom. The optimized nucleotide sequences can be used in a reverse genetics system to facilitate the rescue of infectious influenza virus containing the engineered structural proteins and/or enhance viral titers. Also provided are methods of preparing an influenza vaccine composition using the optimized nucleotide sequences, as well as methods of inducing an immune response using the influenza vaccine composition.

Improved anti-HPV immunogens and nucleic acid molecules that encode them are disclosed. Immunogens disclosed include those having consensus HPV39 E6E7 and HPV45 E6E7. Pharmaceutical composition, recombinant vaccines comprising DNA plasmid and live attenuated vaccines are disclosed as well methods of inducing an immune response in an individual against HPV are disclosed.

Disclosed herein are methods and exemplary compositions associated with antigen purification, exemplary aspects of which may include harvesting viral and antigenic substances from source organisms; and a purification platform comprising chemical separation and size-difference separation for the removal of contaminants, debris and impurities from the viral and protein (e.g. antigenic, including influenza hemagglutinin antigens) substances, as well as their concentration and collection.

The present specification discloses recombinant nucleic acid constructs encoding an immunogenic multiepitope polypeptide comprising two or more polypeptides, recombinant nucleic acid constructs encoding at least two epitopes from two or more internal proteins of influenza virus, compositions comprising such recombinant nucleic acid constructs and methods of eliciting a T cell immune response against an influenza virus in a vertebrate using such recombinant nucleic acid constructs and compositions.

Described herein is the generation of optimized H5N1 influenza HA polypeptides for eliciting a broadly reactive immune response to H5N1 influenza virus isolates. The optimized HA polypeptides were developed through a series of HA protein alignments, and subsequent generation of consensus sequences, based on human and avian H5N1 isolates. Provided herein are optimized H5N1 HA polypeptides, and compositions, fusion proteins and VLPs comprising the HA polypeptides. Further provided are codon-optimized nucleic acid sequences encoding the HA polypeptides. Methods of eliciting an immune response against influenza virus in a subject are also provided by the present disclosure.

An H7 avian influenza vaccine strain which differentiates infected from vaccinated animals, a preparation method therefor, and an application. The highly pathogenic H7 avian influenza not only brings about huge economic losses to the livestock industry, but also seriously threatens public health safety. Conventional H7 avian influenza whole virus inactivated vaccines do have advantages such as being reliable in terms of effect, low in terms of cost and wide in terms of application range, but cannot serologically differentiate infected from vaccinated animals. The present invention uses NA of influenza B as a label to establish a method for constructing an H7 avian influenza vaccine strain which differentiates infection from vaccination, and may be used for the prevention, control and decontamination of the H7 avian influenza.