This disclosure relates to antigenic EBV polypeptides and their use in eliciting antibodies against EBV. Also disclosed are antigenic polypeptides comprising an EBV polypeptide and a ferritin protein.

The present invention concerns uses of immune suppressive domains. In particular, the present invention concerns a use of an immune suppressive domain (ISD) for immune suppression and for reduction of inflammation.

Disclosed are methods and compositions for preventing, treating, and/or ameliorating one or more symptoms of inflammation in a mammal. In particular, viral vectors and medicaments containing them are disclosed, which are useful in the prophylaxis, therapy, or amelioration of symptoms of one or more inflammatory-mediated mammalian diseases, such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD), arthritis, Bechet's disease, Best macular dystrophy, corneal inflammation, diabetic retinopathy, drusen formation, dry AMD, dry eye, geographic atrophy, glaucomaocular neovascularization, Lupus erythematosus, macular degeneration, Mallatia Leventinese and Doyne honeycomb retinal dystrophy, nephritis, ocular hypertension, ocular inflammation, recurrent uveitis, Sorsby fundus dystrophy, vasculitis, vitreoretinopathy, wet AMD, or related disorders. In exemplary methods, administration of a pharmaceutical composition comprising a recombinant viral vector that delivers a secretable and cell-penetrating M013 protein or peptide to a subject in need thereof facilitated treatment of particular human disorders such as AMD, ocular neovascularization, uveitis, and related inflammatory ocular disease.

Methods for treating patients having a cardiomyopathy are provided. Additionally, methods for prophylactically treating patients at risk of developing a cardiomyopathy are provided. Methods for treating patients having, or at risk of developing, a cardiomyopathy may comprise administering a fusion protein including a tafazzin peptide and a cellular permeability peptide to the patient. Further, the tafazzin peptide may be coupled to the cellular permeability peptide by a polypeptide linker.

The present invention provides novel scaffolded HIV-1 vaccine immunogens. Some of the scaffolded immunogens contain a soluble gp140 trimer linked to the N-terminus of the nanoparticle subunit and a T-helper epitope that is fused via a short peptide spacer to the C-terminus of the nanoparticle subunit. Some other immunogens of the invention contain a soluble gp140 trimer protein that is linked to a stable nanoparticle via a short peptide spacer that is a T-helper epitope. Some of the scaffolded immunogens contain a gp140 trimer immunogen presented on a nanoparticle platform formed with I3-01 protein, E2p, or variants of protein 1VLW. Also provided in the invention are nucleic acids that encode the various vaccine immunogens described herein, and expression vectors and host cells harboring the nucleic acids. The invention further provides methods of using the scaffolded HIV-1 vaccine immunogens for preventing or treating HIV infections.

Despite the eye's immune-privileged status, a secondary loss of vision in some patients treated with AAV led the inventors to question the immunogenicity of AAV vectors after a subretinal injection. The inventors thus characterized anti-transgene and anti-capsid immune responses induced in the periphery after the subretinal AAV injection. Different doses of AAV8 encoding reporter proteins fused with the HY male antigen were injected at day 0 into the subretinal space of adult immunocompetent C57BL/6 female mice. Subretinal AAV injection induced a dose-dependent proinflammatory immune response to the transgene product, correlated with local transgene expression. In order to trigger a subretinal-associated immune inhibition (SRAII) mechanism, some mice were co-injected subretinally at day 0 with AAV and HY peptides. Interestingly, this subretinal co-injection of AAV8 with peptides of the transgene product modulated the anti-transgene T-cell immune response, even at high dose of vector (5.10.sup.10 vg). This immunodulation was also confirmed in a pathophysiological murine model of retinal degeneration. The inventors also demonstrated that injection of AAV8 in the subretinal space induces proinflammatory peripheral immune responses to the transgene and the capsid that could be counteracted y co-injection with transgene peptides. Accordingly, the object of the present invention is to provide methods for preventing induction of immune responses to the transgene product and the AAV capsid after ocular gene therapy.

The present disclosure provides targeting peptides and vectors containing a sequence that encodes targeting peptides that deliver agents to the brain.

Embodiments herein report compositions, uses and manufacturing of dengue virus constructs and live attenuated dengue viruses. Some embodiments concern a composition that includes, but is not limited to, a tetravalent dengue virus composition. In certain embodiments, compositions can include constructs of one or more serotypes of dengue virus, such as dengue-1 (DEN-1) virus, dengue-2 (DEN-2) virus, dengue-3 (DEN-3) or dengue-4 (DEN-4) virus constructs. In other embodiments, constructs disclosed herein can be combined in a composition to generate a vaccine against more one or more dengue virus constructs that may or may not be subsequently passaged in mammalian cells.

The invention relates to a peptide, polypeptide, or protein that binds specifically to cells of the lung endothelium. The peptide, polypeptide, or protein can be a component of a viral capsid and can be used to lead a recombinant viral vector selectively to the lung endothelial tissue after systemic administration to a subject and to ensure tissue-specific expression of one or more transgenes there. The invention thus further relates to a recombinant viral vector, preferably an AAV vector, which comprises a capsid comprising the peptide, polypeptide, or protein according to the invention and which comprises at least one transgene packaged in the capsid. The viral vector is suitable in particular for the therapeutic treatment of a lung disorder or a lung disease. The invention further relates to cells and pharmaceutical compositions which comprise the viral vector according to the invention.

The present disclosure is drawn to HCMV US11 based therapeutics that can be used to target and reduce the activity of the FcRn protein. The disclosure provides a method of treating auto-immune mediated and albumin-mediated diseases in a subject comprising administering to the subject a therapeutically effective amount of a pharmaceutical composition comprising HCMV US11 (herein after referred to as “US11”) polypeptide, polypeptide fragments, or variants thereof. The disclosure also provides methods for preventing, or treating, infections of HCMV through administration of a US11 inhibitor. US11 containing vaccine compositions are also provided for stimulation of an anti-US11 immune response for protection against HCMV infection.