The invention relates to mutations and alterations in the inflammatory pathway, including IL-18BP and IL-10RB mutations, that are associated with the development of fulminant viral hepatitis following viral infection, such as following hepatitis virus infection. The invention relates to methods for treating or ameliorating viral hepatitis comprising administering IL-18BP, IL-18 antagonist, IFNγ antagonist or inhibitor, and/or IL-10RB or an IL-10 antagonist.

Methods and devices to identify contact lens wearers predisposed to contact lens discomfort are described. The methods and devices involve obtaining a tear film sample from a person and determining an amount of interleukin-17A present in the tear film sample.

The present invention discloses a pencil-like optical fiber sensor probe, including an inner tube, a light screening casing, a clamping device, an optical fiber and an optical probe; a portable immunosensor, including the pencil-like optical fiber sensor probe, an immersion immune response reagent strip, a touch-screen computer, a compact battery-powered sensitive photon counting detector and a case; and a use of the immunosens in detecting inflammatory markers. The design of the pencil-like optical sensor probe greatly simplifies the immune analysis process by combining the immersion immune response reagent strip. Each optical probe allows for up to 10 immunoassays, which reduces the experimental cost and avoids frequent replacement of the probe. The integrated detecting system is powered by battery which is suitable for in-situ analysis and detection. The sensor also has a high stability and sensitivity.

The present invention relates to IL-34 antibodies, compositions comprising the same, and methods of using the antibodies and or compositions thereof for treating immune-mediated diseases such as neurodegenerative diseases, for example Alzheimer's Disease or a tauopathy disease.

Disclosed are methods of isolating a TCR having antigenic specificity for a mutated amino acid sequence encoded by a cancer-specific mutation, the method comprising: identifying one or more genes in the nucleic acid of a cancer cell of a patient, each gene containing a cancer-specific mutation that encodes a mutated amino acid sequence; inducing autologous APCs of the patient to present the mutated amino acid sequence; co-culturing autologous T cells of the patient with the autologous APCs that present the mutated amino acid sequence; selecting the autologous T cells; and isolating a nucleotide sequence that encodes the TCR from the selected autologous T cells, wherein the TCR has antigenic specificity for the mutated amino acid sequence encoded by the cancer-specific mutation. Also disclosed are related methods of preparing a population of cells, populations of cells, TCRs, pharmaceutical compositions, and methods of treating or preventing cancer.

The present invention provides an aptamer that binds to IL-17 to inhibit binding of IL-17 and IL-17 receptor; a complex containing the aptamer and a functional substance (e.g., affinity substance, labeling substance, enzyme, drug delivery medium, drug and the like); a medicament containing the aptamer, or a complex containing the aptamer and a functional substance, a diagnosing drug and labeling agent and the like.

Methods of selecting test compounds on the basis of their cellular response profiles are disclosed. For a given test compound, a cellular response is determined by introducing into an array of individually addressable microwells a population of cells comprising a plurality of cell types and contacting the cells with the test compound. The cellular response profile for the test compound is then compared to a desired cellular response profile, and the test compound is selected based on the comparison.

Methods and compositions related to the selective, specific disruption of multiple ligand-receptor signaling interactions, such as ligand-receptor interactions implicated in disease, are disclosed. These interactions may involve multiple cytokines in a single receptor family or multiple ligand receptor interactions from at least two distinct ligand-receptor families. The compositions may comprise polypeptides having composite sequences that comprise sequence fragments of two or more ligand binding sites. The methods and compositions may involve sequence fragments of two or more ligand binding sites that are arranged to conserve the secondary structure of each of the ligands from which the sequence fragments were taken.

An in vitro or ex vivo method, based on the measurement of the expression of cytokine(s), from a patient's blood sample, incubated with a stimulus, for determining the risk of occurrence of a healthcare-associated infection in the patient, within seven days following the day on which the collection of the biological sample has been performed from the patient.

The present invention relates to pharmaceutical compositions and methods for the treatment of viral respiratory infections. More specifically, the present invention relates to IL-18 antagonists and their use in the treatment of a viral respiratory infection in a subject having: (a) a deficiency of IL-18 binding protein; and/or (b) a deficiency of natural killer cells and/or a deficiency of functional natural killer cells.