Estrone ( E l ) , mtradiol ( E 2 ) and m r r i o l ( E 3 ) were measured in the urine of Asian and North American women aged 15-19, 20-24 and 30-39 A woman's breast-cancer risk may be related to the pattern of her estrogen metabolism during young adulthood. Specifically, it has been hypothesized that women who, in the decade or so after puberty, have relatively low ratios of cestriol (E3) to estrone ( E l ) and estradiol (E2) are at high risk of breast-cancer (Cole and MacMahon, 1969). The long interval between puberty and the usual age at clinical appearance of breast cancer make this hypothesis difficult to evaluate directly. One method of indirect assessment is to determine whether estrogen profiles of young women vary between populations in ways that would be predicted from knowledge of the populations' breast-cancer rates. A pilot study, comparing urine estrogen profiles of Asian and North American women, provided support for the hypothesis (MacMahon et al., 1971). The larger study which ensued is described herein.
Antibodies to Epstein-Barr virus capsid antigen (anti-VCA) and early antigen (anti-EA) were measured in 263 patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), 624 age- and sex-matched neighborhood controls, 570 family members of NPC patients and 830 family members of neighborhood controls in Taiwan. The distribution of antibody titers was significantly different between NPC patients and the other three groups. More than 55% and 45% of NPC patients had titers of greater than or equal to 1:640 and greater than or equal to 1:80 for anti-VCA and anti-EA, respectively, while less than 6.7% and 2.5% of the other three groups had such high titers. The geometric means of anti-VCA and anti-EA titers were 1:352 and 1:45, respectively, in NPC patients compared to less than 1:77 and 1:12, respectively, in the comparison groups. Anti-VCA and anti-EA titers were significantly correlated. The association of EBV with NPC is discussed.
Background
Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) continues to be a major public health challenge globally. The identification of SARS-CoV-2-derived T cell epitopes is of critical importance for peptide vaccines or diagnostic tools of COVID-19.
Methods
In this study, a number of SARS-CoV-2-derived HLA-I binding peptides were predicted by NetMHCpan-4.1 and selected by Popcover to achieve pancoverage of the Chinese population. The top 5 ranked peptides derived from each protein of SARS-CoV-2 were then evaluated using PBMCs from unexposed individuals (negative for SARS-CoV-2 IgG).
Results
Seven epitopes derived from 4 SARS-CoV-2 proteins were identified. Interestingly, most (5 out of 7) of the SARS-CoV-2-derived peptides with predicted affinities for HLA-I molecules were identified as HLA-II-restricted epitopes and induced CD4+ T cell-dependent responses. These results complete missing pieces of pre-existing SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells and suggest that pre-existing T cells targeting all SARS-CoV-2-encoded proteins can be discovered in unexposed populations.
Conclusions
In summary, in the current study, we present an alternative and effective strategy for the identification of T cell epitopes of SARS-CoV-2 in healthy subjects, which may indicate an important role in the development of peptide vaccines for COVID-19.
Vulvar carcinoma is a rare tumor occurring in female patients. Though more than 40% of vulva cancers are due to the infection of human papillomavirus (HPV), understanding of HPV and vulvar carcinoma is insufficient. HPV expression is regulated by cellular and viral transcription factors that bind to specific elements within the ligase chain reaction. These proteins bind with different affinity to host cell proteins and disrupt normal epithelial differentiation and apoptosis. Immunotherapy does not target tumors, but instead targets the host immune system. Active immunotherapy is tumor-targeting or immune-targeting monoclonal antibodies and vaccines. Nonspecific active immunotherapy is mainly cytokine therapy. In the treatment and prevention of HPV, the most popular research projects were regarding peptide, recombinant protein and DNA-based vaccines, recombinant virus and other targets in HPV infection. Since the cervix and vulva are both susceptible areas, these studies may be able to help reduce prevalence of vulvar precancerous lesions and prevent all cancers caused by HPV.
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