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Guest Editor

Institute of Immunology, Department of Pathobiology, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, A-1210 Vienna, Austria
Interests: PCR-based MHC typing; swine leukocyte antigen (SLA); TCR diversity; porcine vaccinology; canine and feline lymphomas

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Tailored vaccine candidate T cell antigens are playing a crucial role in designing and developing promising immunization strategies against e.g., viral infections.

In contrast to traditional vaccines based on attenuated or inactivated pathogens that are often sufficiently immunogenic without added adjuvants, safer protein-based vaccines require adjuvants to induce a protective and long-lasting immune response. Antigen (Ag)-specific CD4 T helper cells play an essential role in the generation and maintenance of long-lasting humoral and cellular immunity and are therefore important vaccine targets. Successful priming and expansion of CD4 T-cell responses require T-cell receptor (TCR) recognition of foreign peptides bound to class II major histocompatibility complex (pMHCII) on the surface of dendritic cells (DCs).

In this context, we would like to encourage and appreciate the submission of recent advancements in providing evidence for the dependence on the MHC background and TCR diversity for the vaccination success to this special issue.

Contributions addressing aspects relevant for designing vaccines against zoonotic or emerging diseases, such as SARS-CoV-2, will also be considered for publication.

Dr. Sabine E. Hammer
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Vaccines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

T cell receptor
MHC
vaccines
vaccination
vaccine design

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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Open AccessArticle

Disc Large Homolog 1 Is Critical for Early T Cell Receptor Micro Cluster Formation and Activation in Human T Cells

June Guha

and

Raj Chari

Vaccines 2021, 9(12), 1446; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines9121446 - 07 Dec 2021

Viewed by 1715

Abstract

T cell activation by antigen involves multiple sequential steps, including T cell receptor-microcluster TCR-(MC) formation, immunological synapse formation, and phosphorylation of mediators downstream of the TCR. The adaptor protein, Disc Large Homolog 1 (DLG1), is known to regulate proximal TCR signaling and, in turn, T cell activation, acting as a molecular chaperone that organizes specific kinases downstream of antigen recognition. In this study, we used knockdown and knockout technologies in human primary T cells and a human T cell line to demonstrate the role of DLG1 in proximal T cell signaling. High-end confocal microscopy was used for pictorial representation of T cell micro-clusters and colocalization studies. From all these studies, we could demonstrate that DLG1 functions even earlier than immunological synapse formation, to regulate T cell activation by promoting TCR-MC formation. Moreover, we found that DLG1 can act as a bridge between the TCR-ζ chain and ZAP70 while inhibiting binding of the phosphatase SHP1 to TCR-ζ. Together, these effects drive dysregulation of T cell activation in DLG1-deficient T cells. Overall, the activation and survival status of T cell is a critical determinant of effective vaccine response, and DLG1-mediated T cell signaling events can be a driving factor for improving vaccine-designing strategies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research on MHC Background and TCR Diversity in Vaccinology)

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Review

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Open AccessReview

Advances in Understanding of the Immune Response to Mycobacterial Pathogens and Vaccines through Use of Cattle and Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis as a Prototypic Mycobacterial Pathogen

and

Vaccines 2021, 9(10), 1085; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines9101085 - 26 Sep 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1458

Abstract

Lack of understanding of the immune response to mycobacterial pathogens has impeded progress in development of vaccines. Infection leads to development of an immune response that controls infection but is unable to eliminate the pathogen, resulting in a persistent infection. Although this puzzle remains to be solved, progress has been made using cattle as a model species to study the immune response to a prototypic mycobacterium, Mycobacterium a. paratuberculosis (Map). As chronicled in the review, incremental advances in characterizing the immune response to mycobacteria during the last 30 years with increases in information on the evolution of mycobacteria and relA, a gene regulating the stringent response, have brought us closer to an answer. We provide a brief overview of how mycobacterial pathogens were introduced into cattle during the transition of humankind to nomadic pastoralists who domesticated animals for food and farming. We summarize what is known about speciation of mycobacteria since the discovery of Mybacterium tuberculsis Mtb, M. bovis Mbv, and Map as zoonotic pathogens and discuss the challenges inherent in the development of vaccines to mycobacteria. We then describe how cattle were used to characterize the immune response to a prototypic mycobacterial pathogen and development of novel candidate vaccines. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research on MHC Background and TCR Diversity in Vaccinology)

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