Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) is a deadly viral respiratory disease caused by MERS-coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection. To date, there is no specific treatment proven effective against this viral disease. In addition, no vaccine has been licensed to prevent MERS-CoV infection thus far. Therefore, our current review focuses on the most recent studies in search of an effective MERS vaccine. Overall, vaccine candidates against MERS-CoV are mainly based upon the viral spike (S) protein, due to its vital role in the viral infectivity, although several studies focused on other viral proteins such as the nucleocapsid (N) protein, envelope (E) protein, and non-structural protein 16 (NSP16) have also been reported. In general, the potential vaccine candidates can be classified into six types: viral vector-based vaccine, DNA vaccine, subunit vaccine, nanoparticle-based vaccine, inactivated-whole virus vaccine and live-attenuated vaccine, which are discussed in detail. Besides, the immune responses and potential antibody dependent enhancement of MERS-CoV infection are extensively reviewed. In addition, animal models used to study MERS-CoV and evaluate the vaccine candidates are discussed intensively.

Kefir is a fermented beverage with renowned probiotics that coexist in symbiotic association with other microorganisms in kefir grains. This beverage consumption is associated with a wide array of nutraceutical benefits, including anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidative, anti-cancer, anti-microbial, anti-diabetic, anti-hypertensive, and anti-hypercholesterolemic effects. Moreover, kefir can be adapted into different substrates which allow the production of new functional beverages to provide product diversification. Being safe and inexpensive, there is an immense global interest in kefir’s nutritional potential. Due to their promising benefits, kefir and kefir-like products have a great prospect for commercialization. This manuscript reviews the therapeutic aspects of kefir to date, and potential applications of kefir products in the health and food industries, along with the limitations. The literature reviewed here demonstrates that there is a growing demand for kefir as a functional food owing to a number of health-promoting properties.

Mucosal surfaces are the first site of infection for most infectious diseases and oral vaccination can provide protection as the first line of defense. Unlike systemic administration, oral immunization can stimulate cellular and humoral immune responses at both systemic and mucosal levels to induce broad-spectrum and long-lasting immunity. Therefore, to design a successful vaccine, it is essential to stimulate the mucosal as well as systemic immune responses. Successful oral vaccines need to overcome the harsh gastrointestinal environment such as the extremely low pH, proteolytic enzymes, bile salts as well as low permeability and the low immunogenicity of vaccines. In recent years, several delivery systems and adjuvants have been developed for improving oral vaccine delivery and immunogenicity. Formulation of vaccines with nanoparticles and microparticles have been shown to improve antigen stability, availability and adjuvanticity as well as immunostimulatory capacity, target delivery and specific release. This review discusses how nanoparticles (NPs) and microparticles (MPs) as oral carriers with adjuvant characteristics can be beneficial in oral vaccine development.

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Flavokawain A is a chalcone that can be found in the kava-kava plant (Piper methsyticum) extract. The kava-kava plant has been reported to possess anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive activities. The state of the immune system, and the inflammatory process play vital roles in the progression of cancer. The immunomodulatary effects and the anti-inflammatory effects of flavokawain A in a breast cancer murine model have not been studied yet. Thus, this study aimed to elucidate the basic mechanism as to how flavokawain A regulates and enhance the immune system as well as impeding the inflammatory process in breast cancer-challenged mice. Based on our study, it is interesting to note that flavokawain A increased the T cell population; both Th1 cells and CTLs, aside from the natural killer cells. The levels of IFN-γ and IL-2 were also elevated in the serum of flavokawain A-treated mice. Apart from that, flavokawain A also decreased the weight and volume of the tumor, and managed to induce apoptosis in them. In terms of inflammation, flavokawain A-treated mice had reduced level of major pro-inflammatory mediators; NO, iNOS, NF-KB, ICAM and COX-2. Overall, flavokawain A has the potential to not only enhance antitumor immunity, but also prevents the inflammatory process in a cancer-prone microenvironment.

Globally, breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in women, and it remains a substantial clinical challenge due to cancer relapse. The presence of a subpopulation of dormant breast cancer cells that survived chemotherapy and metastasized to distant organs may contribute to relapse. Tumor microenvironment (TME) plays a significant role as a niche in inducing cancer cells into dormancy as well as involves in the reversible epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) into aggressive phenotype responsible for cancer-related mortality in patients. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are known to migrate to TME and interact with cancer cells via secretion of exosome- containing biomolecules, microRNA. Understanding of interaction between MSCs and cancer cells via exosomal miRNAs is important in determining the therapeutic role of MSC in treating breast cancer cells and relapse. In this study, exosomes were harvested from a medium of indirect co-culture of MCF7-luminal and MDA-MB-231-basal breast cancer cells (BCCs) subtypes with adipose MSCs. The interaction resulted in different exosomal miRNAs profiles that modulate essential signaling pathways and cell cycle arrest into dormancy via inhibition of metastasis and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Overall, breast cancer cells displayed a change towards a more dormant-epithelial phenotype associated with lower rates of metastasis and higher chemoresistance. The study highlights the crucial roles of adipose MSCs in inducing dormancy and identifying miRNAs-dormancy related markers that could be used to identify the metastatic pattern, predict relapses in cancer patients and to be potential candidate targets for new targeted therapy.

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Due to the limitations in the range of antibodies recognising avian viruses, quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR) is still the most widely used method to evaluate the expression of immunologically related genes in avian viruses. The objective of this study was to identify suitable reference genes for mRNA expression analysis in chicken intraepithelial lymphocyte natural killer (IEL-NK) cells after infection with very-virulent infectious bursal disease virus (vvIBDV). Fifteen potential reference genes were selected based on the references available. The coefficient of variation percentage (CV%) and average count of these 15 genes were determined by NanoString technology for control and infected samples. The M and V values for shortlisted reference genes (ACTB, GAPDH, HMBS, HPRT1, SDHA, TUBB1 and YWHAZ) were calculated using geNorm and NormFinder. GAPDH, YWHAZ and HMBS were the most stably expressed genes. The expression levels of three innate immune response related target genes, CASP8, IL22 and TLR3, agreed in the NanoString and RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) results using one or two reference genes for normalisation (not HMBS). In conclusion, GAPDH and YWHAZ could be used as reference genes for the normalisation of chicken IEL-NK cell gene responses to infection with vvIBDV.