“Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection is one of the

“Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection is one of the leading causes of infant hospitalization and a major health and economic burden worldwide. Infection with this virus induces an exacerbated innate proinflammatory immune response characterized by abundant immune cell infiltration into the airways and GSI-IX price lung tissue damage. RSV also impairs the induction of an adequate adaptive T cell immune response, which favors virus pathogenesis. Unfortunately, to date there are no efficient vaccines against this virus. Recent in vitro and in vivo studies suggest that RSV

infection can prevent T cell activation, a phenomenon attributed in part to cytokines and chemokines secreted by RSV-infected cells. Efficient immunity against viruses is promoted by dendritic cells (DCs), professional antigen-presenting cells, HCS assay that prime antigen- specific helper and cytotoxic T cells. Therefore, it would be to the advantage of RSV to impair DC function

and prevent the induction of T cell immunity. Here, we show that, although RSV infection induces maturation of murine DCs, these cells are rendered unable to activate antigen-specific T cells. Inhibition of T cell activation by RSV was observed independently of the type of TCR ligand on the DC surface and applied to cognate-, allo-, and superantigen stimulation. As a result of exposure to RSV-infected DCs, T cells became unresponsive to subsequent TCR engagement. RSV-mediated impairment in T cell activation required DC-T cell BTSA1 cell line contact and involved inhibition of immunological synapse assembly among these cells. Our data suggest that impairment of immunological synapse could contribute to RSV pathogenesis by evading adaptive immunity and reducing T cell-mediated

virus clearance.”
“Thiamin diphosphate (ThDP)-dependent enzymes play pivotal roles in intermediary metabolism of virtually all organisms. Although extensive mechanistic work on cofactor models and various enzymes has served as a guide to understand general principles of catalysis, high-resolution structural information of reaction intermediates along the catalytic pathway was scarcely available until recently. Here, we review cryocrystallographic studies oil the prototypical ThDP enzymes pyruvate oxidase and transketolase, which provided exciting insights into the chemical nature and Structural features of several key intermediates and into the stereochemical course of substrate processing. The structures revealed a conserved (S)configuration at the C2alpha stereocenter of the initially formed tetrahedral intermediate in the different enzymes with the scissile C2alpha-C2beta bond being directed perpendicular to the aromatic ring plane of the thiazolium portion of ThDP confirming the proposed maximum overlap mechanism.

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