• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.61 no.3
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• pp.231-239
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• 2023

Toxoplasma gondii is an intracellular parasitic organism affecting all warm-blooded vertebrates. Due to the unavailability of commercialized human T. gondii vaccine, many studies have been reported investigating the protective efficacy of pre-clinical T. gondii vaccines expressing diverse antigens. Careful antigen selection and implementing multifarious immunization strategies could enhance protection against toxoplasmosis in animal models. Although none of the available vaccines could remove the tissue-dwelling parasites from the host organism, findings from these pre-clinical toxoplasmosis vaccine studies highlighted their developmental potential and provided insights into rational vaccine design. We herein explored the progress of T. gondii vaccine development using DNA, protein subunit, and virus-like particle vaccine platforms. Specifically, we summarized the findings from the pre-clinical toxoplasmosis vaccine studies involving T. gondii challenge infection in mice published in the past 5 years.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.57-64
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• 2022

Purpose: The government of India has initiated the Covid-19 Vaccination drive from early January 2021. Vaccination is identified to be best option to protect the people across the globe. However, owing to fast wide spread of the Covid-19, the Vaccine Distribution is a major challenge owing various issues like temperature control, infrastructure, hesitancy, geographical diversity, and other critical factors. Various research is carried out globally to understand and study the Vaccine Distribution issues based on the respective country issues and factors. Research Design, Data, and Methodology: This research paper attempts to explore prominent factors that could be taken up on priority for better and effective vaccination program. The study tries to rank various factors and sub-factors affecting vaccine distribution in India. AHP methodology based on feedback from 22 experts from the Vaccine industry has been deployed to get the desired results. Result: The results show that factors vaccine approval process, geographical prioritization, power supply, infrastructure maintenance costs for vaccine storage, and vaccine pricing are the prominent factors of effective vaccination in the country. Conclusion: The role and need for district-level health officers towards vaccine storage has been brought forward. A long-term effective vaccination policy is needed for optimum vaccine distribution.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.42.1-42.23
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• 2023

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is the causative agent of tuberculosis, one of the most deadly infections in humans. The emergence of multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant Mtb strains presents a global challenge. Mtb has shown resistance to many frontline antibiotics, including rifampicin, kanamycin, isoniazid, and capreomycin. The only licensed vaccine, Bacille Calmette-Guerin, does not efficiently protect against adult pulmonary tuberculosis. Therefore, it is urgently necessary to develop new vaccines to prevent infections caused by these strains. We used a subtractive proteomics approach on 23 virulent Mtb strains and identified a conserved membrane protein (MmpL4, NP_214964.1) as both a potential drug target and vaccine candidate. MmpL4 is a non-homologous essential protein in the host and is involved in the pathogen-specific pathway. Furthermore, MmpL4 shows no homology with anti-targets and has limited homology to human gut microflora, potentially reducing the likelihood of adverse effects and cross-reactivity if therapeutics specific to this protein are developed. Subsequently, we constructed a highly soluble, safe, antigenic, and stable multi-subunit vaccine from the MmpL4 protein using immunoinformatics. Molecular dynamics simulations revealed the stability of the vaccine-bound Tolllike receptor-4 complex on a nanosecond scale, and immune simulations indicated strong primary and secondary immune responses in the host. Therefore, our study identifies a new target that could expedite the design of effective therapeutics, and the designed vaccine should be validated. Future directions include an extensive molecular interaction analysis, in silico cloning, wet-lab experiments, and evaluation and comparison of the designed candidate as both a DNA vaccine and protein vaccine.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.457-465
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• 2014

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to apply Ajzen's theory of planned behavior to identify factors that affect undergraduate women's decisions to receive human papillomavirus(HPV) vaccination. Method: The research design for this study was a descriptive survey design using convenience sampling. Data collection was done using self-report questionnaires with 254 undergraduate students in G city. Data were analyzed using percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test, ANOVA, Mann-Whitney U test, Pearson correlation analysis and multiple regression with the SPSS Win 20.0 Program. Results: The mean score of intention to receive HPV vaccine was $3.88{\pm}1.05$ out of a possible 7. Intention to receive HPV vaccine showed a significantly positive correlation with attitudes (r=.26, p<.001), subjective norm (r=.51, p<.001), perceived behavior control (r=.41, p<.001) to receive HPV vaccination. In the multiple regression analysis, subjective norm and perceived behavior control to receive HPV vaccine were significant predictors and explained 33.7% of intention to receive HPV vaccine. Conclusion: Results of this study show that there are significant factors affecting the intention of undergraduate women to receive HPV vaccination. Also, strategies emphasizing subjective norm and perceived behavior control in obtaining HPV vaccination should be taken into account in developing educational programs.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.19 no.8
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• pp.5-12
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• 2021

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze and examine the issues that are directly associated with the United States COVID-19 vaccine distribution and its strategies so that other countries may learn from it and develop sound distribution strategies. Research design, data and methodology: This paper has applied both historical and narrative models to review, identify, and analyze existing literatures to assess the United States' vaccine distribution strategy. Results: Distribution strategy developed by the United States seems to have focused heavily on the basic tenets of physical distribution, i.e., transportation, warehousing, inventory, and large-venue mass-vaccination sites, and the strategy seems to have been successful when looking only at the physical tenets of distribution. However, the analysis indicates that the distribution strategy has not either focused on or included the major activities of distribution, such as inward and outward communication, information, and customer satisfaction. Conclusions: The countries that are currently developing or implementing COVID-19 vaccine distribution strategy should review and learn from the United States' vaccine distribution strategy and its implementation. The countries should include and address all the activities of distribution, including inward and outward communication, information, and customer satisfaction to achieve their vaccination goals, minimize confusion, reduce wasting of doses and vaccine desserts, and improve vaccination rates.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.379-386
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• 2004

This paper deals with a mixed logit model for vaccination data. The effect of a newly developed vaccine for a certain chicken disease can be evaluated by a noninfection rate after injecting chicken with the disease vaccine. But there are a lot of factors that might affect the noninfecton rate. Some of these are fixed and others are random. Random factors are sometimes coming from the sampling scheme for choosing experimental units. This paper suggests a mixed model when some fixed factors need to have different experimental sizes by an experimental design and illustrates how to estimate parameters in a suggested model.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.7
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• pp.4041-4047
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• 2013

Cancer vaccine development is in the process of becoming reality in future, due to successful phase II/III clinical trials. However, there are still problems due to the specificity of tumor antigens and weakness of tumor associated antigens in eliciting an effective immune response. Computational models to assess the vaccine efficacy have helped to improve and understand what is necessary for personalized treatment. Further research is needed to elucidate the mechanisms of activation of antigen specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes, decreased TREG number functionality and antigen cascade, so that overall improvement in vaccine efficacy and disease free survival can be attained. T cell epitomic based in sillico approaches might be very effective for the design and development of novel cancer vaccines.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.51-57
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• 2015

Vaccines are the most effective and cost-efficient method for preventing diseases caused by infectious pathogens. Despite the great success of vaccines, development of safe and strong vaccines is still required for emerging new pathogens, re-emerging old pathogens, and in order to improve the inadequate protection conferred by existing vaccines. One of the most important strategies for the development of effective new vaccines is the selection and usage of a suitable adjuvant. Immunologic adjuvants are essential for enhancing vaccine potency by improvement of the humoral and/or cell-mediated immune response to vaccine antigens. Thus, formulation of vaccines with appropriate adjuvants is an attractive approach towards eliciting protective and long-lasting immunity in humans. However, only a limited number of adjuvants is licensed for human vaccines due to concerns about safety and toxicity. We summarize current knowledge about the potential benefits of adjuvants, the characteristics of adjuvants and the mechanisms of adjuvants in human vaccines. Adjuvants have diverse modes of action and should be selected for use on the basis of the type of immune response that is desired for a particular vaccine. Better understanding of current adjuvants will help exploring new adjuvant formulations and facilitate rational design of vaccines against infectious diseases.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.11
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• pp.5557-5562
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• 2012

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the frequency and correlation between auto-antibodies to survivin and MUC1 variable number tandem repeats (VNTR) in colorectal cancer (CRC), which can provide valuable information for the design of immunotherapeutic vaccines for this disease. Methods: Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) were used to examine the level of auto-antibodies against survivin and MUC1 VNTR in the serum of 135 CRC patients and 95 healthy volunteers. Results: Using mean absorbance + 2 standard deviations (SD) of the healthy samples as a cut-off value, the positive rates of survivin and MUC1 VNTR auto-antibodies in CRC were 31.1% and 18.5%, respectively. Altogether, the survivin and MUC1 VNTR positive samples accounted for 36.3% of the CRC patients, and 7.4% were positive for both. Conclusion: A significant positive correlation was found between levels of specific antibodies against survivin and MUC1 VNTR in the serum of CRC patients (r = 0.3652, P < 0.0001), suggesting that vaccines against both targets would elicit immune responses more effectively.

• International Journal of Oral Biology
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.63-70
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• 2017

Selecting an appropriate antigen with optimal immunogenicity and physicochemical properties is a pivotal factor to develop a protein based subunit vaccine. Despite rapid progress in modern molecular cloning and recombinant protein technology, there remains a huge challenge for purifying and using protein antigens rich in hydrophobic domains, such as membrane associated proteins. To overcome current limitations using hydrophobic proteins as vaccine antigens, we adopted in silico analyses which included bioinformatic prediction and sequence-based protein 3D structure modeling, to develop a novel periodontitis subunit vaccine against the outer membrane protein FomA of Fusobacterium nucleatum. To generate an optimal antigen candidate, we predicted hydrophilicity and B cell epitope parameter by querying to web-based databases, and designed a truncated FomA (tFomA) candidate with better solubility and preserved B cell epitopes. The truncated recombinant protein was engineered to expose epitopes on the surface through simulating amino acid sequence-based 3D folding in aqueous environment. The recombinant tFomA was further expressed and purified, and its immunological properties were evaluated. In the mice intranasal vaccination study, tFomA significantly induced antigen-specific IgG and sIgA responses in both systemic and oral-mucosal compartments, respectively. Our results testify that intelligent in silico designing of antigens provide amenable vaccine epitopes from hard-to-manufacture hydrophobic domain rich microbial antigens.