Type I interferons (IFN-Is) have key roles in immune defense and treatments for various diseases, including chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. All IFN-Is signal through a shared IFN-I heter...

The H5N1 subtype highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) reveals high variability and threatens poultry production and public health. To prevent the spread of H5N1 HPAIV, we developed an H5...

Internal migrants are a challenge for TB control in large Chinese cities and understanding this epidemiology is crucial for designing effective control and prevention strategies. We conducted a pro...

This review gives an overview of the protective role of CD8+ T cells in SARS-CoV-2 infection. The cross-reactive responses intermediated by CD8+ T cells in unexposed cohorts are described. Addition...

Published in Emerging Microbes & Infections (Just accepted, 2023)

Published in Emerging Microbes & Infections (Just accepted, 2023)

The persistence of HBV covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) and HBV integration into the host genome in infected hepatocytes pose significant challenges to the cure of chronic HBV infection. Alt...

H5N1 avian influenza viruses bearing the clade 2.3.2.1 hemagglutinin (HA) gene have been widely detected in birds and poultry in several countries. During our routine surveillance, we isolated 28 H...

Following the national dynamic zero-COVID strategy adjustment, the utilization of broad-spectrum nasal neutralizing antibodies may offer alternative approach to controlling the outbreak of Omicron ...

Due to the fact that many avian influenza viruses that kill chickens are not lethal to ducks, farmers are reluctant to use avian influenza inactivated vaccines on ducks. Large numbers of unvaccinat...

There is tremendous heterogeneity in the severity of COVID-19 disease in the human population, and the mechanisms governing the development of severe disease remain incompletely understood. The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOC) Delta (B.1.617.2) and Omicron (B.1.1.529) further compounded this heterogeneity. Virus replication and host cell damage in the distal lung is often associated

Vaccination strategies that can induce a broad spectrum immune response are important to enhance protection against SARS-CoV-2 variants. We conducted a randomized, double-blind and parallel control...

Since emerging in late 2019, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has repeatedly crossed the species barrier with natural infections reported in various domestic and wild an...

Dengue fever is expanding as a global public health threat including countries within Africa. For the past few decades, Cameroon has experienced sporadic cases of arboviral infections including den...

Exchange of antimicrobial resistance genes via mobile genetic elements occur in the gut which can be transferred from mother to neonate during birth. This study is the first to analyze transmissibl...

Published in Emerging Microbes & Infections (Just accepted, 2023)

Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is an infection of the central nervous system caused by the tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV). TBE is endemic in parts of Europe and Asia. TBEV is transmitted to hu...

Bordetella pertussis is a Gram-negative, strictly human re-emerging respiratory pathogen and the causative agent of whooping cough. Similar to other Gram-negative pathogens, B. pertussis produces the type III secretion system, but its role in the pathogenesis of B. pertussis is enigmatic and yet to be elucidated. Here, we combined RNA-seq, LC-MS/MS, and co-immunoprecipitation techniques to identify

The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 recombinants is of particular concern as they can result in a sudden increase in immune evasion due to antigenic shift. Recent recombinants XBB and XBB.1.5 have higher transmissibility than previous recombinants such as "Deltacron." We hypothesized that immunity to a SARS-CoV-2 recombinant depends on prior exposure to its parental strains. To test this hypothesis, we examined

Numbers of non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) pulmonary diseases (PD) have been repeatedly reported as increasing over the last decades, particularly in Europe. Sound epidemiological data are howev...

Diabetic foot infections are a common complication of diabetes. Staphylococcus aureus is frequently isolated from diabetic foot infections and commonly colonizes human nares. According to the study...

Providencia as an opportunistic pathogen can cause serious infection, and moreover the emergence of multidrug-resistant Providencia strains poses a potentially life-threatening risk to public healt...

Pneumococcal disease is a major threat to public health globally, impacting individuals across all age groups, particularly infants and elderly individuals. The use of current vaccines has led to unintended consequences, including serotype replacement, leading to a need for a new approach to combat pneumococcal disease. A promising solution is the development of a broad-spectrum pneumococcal vaccine

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) has become one of the important pathogens that threaten the global public health. Type 3 and 4 HEV are zoonotic, which can spread vertically and cause placental damage. At t...

Abstract& ims: Hepatitis delta virus (HDV) infection accelerates the progression of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, posing a large economic and health burden to patients. At present, the...

Swine H1N1/2009 influenza is a highly infectious respiratory disease in pigs, which poses a great threat to pig production and human health. In this study, we investigated the global expression pro...

In October 2020, a new lineage of clade 2.3.4.4b HPAI virus of the H5 subtype emerged in Europe, resulting in the largest global outbreak of HPAI to date, with unprecedented mortality in wild birds...

Immature feathers are known replication sites for high pathogenicity avian influenza viruses (HPAIVs) in poultry. However, it is unclear whether feathers play an active role in viral transmission. ...

The highly mutated BA.2.86, with over 30 spike protein mutations in comparison to Omicron BA.2 and XBB.1.5 variants, has raised concerns about its potential to evade COVID-19 vaccination or prior S...

Influenza A viruses (IAVs) continue to cause tremendous economic losses to the global animal industry and respiratory diseases and deaths among humans. The nuclear import of the vRNP complex, compo...

ABSTRACTThe World Health Organization has identified high-priority target product profiles for new TB diagnostics which include rapid biomarker-based, non-sputum-based diagnostic testing, using an easily accessible sample. The Cepheid 3-gene Host Response Fingerstick Blood Prototype Test (MTB-HR) quantifies relative mRNA levels of a 3-gene signature (GBP5, DUSP3, and KLF2) from a whole-blood sample

Published in Emerging Microbes & Infections (Just accepted, 2023)

Chikungunya virus is a re-emerging arbovirus that has caused epidemic outbreaks in recent decades. Patients in older age groups with high viral load and severe immunologic response during acute inf...

Immune evasion by SARS-CoV-2 paired with immune imprinting from monovalent mRNA vaccines has resulted in attenuated neutralizing antibody responses against Omicron subvariants. In this study, we ch...

Immune overactivation is a hallmark of chronic HIV infection, which is critical to HIV pathogenesis and disease progression. The imbalance of helper T cell (Th) differentiation and subsequent cytok...

Opportunistic infections (OIs) and malignancies are the major causes of morbidity and mortality among people living with HIV. Women are disproportionally affected by HIV and are at greater risk of ...

The persistence and clinical consequences of rabies virus (RABV) infection have prompted global efforts to develop a safe and effective vaccines against rabies. mRNA vaccines represent a promising ...

Giardia intestinalis, a cosmopolitan gastrointestinal protist, is detected mainly in patients with clinical giardiasis in high-income countries. In contrast, there is very little information on the...

Some post-licensure studies have shown a potential increased risk of intussusception following vaccination with rotavirus vaccines. This is the first study that aimed to assess the incidence and ri...

Ebola disease outbreaks are major public health events because of human-to-human transmission and high mortality. These outbreaks are most often caused by Ebola virus, but at least three related vi...

African swine fever virus is a complex DNA virus that causes high fatality in pigs and wild boar and has a great socio-economic impact. An attenuated genotype II strain was constructed by replacing...

The Zika virus 2015 epidemic showed an unusual phenotype for human flaviviruses, specifically fetal infection. We previously showed that in utero inoculation with the Asian Zika virus isolated from...

The global outbreak of COVID-19 has caused a severe threat to human health; therefore, simple, high-throughput neutralization assays are desirable for developing vaccines and drugs against COVID-19...

Limited follow-up data is available on the recovery of Omicron COVID-19 patients after acute illness. It is also critical to understand persistence of neutralizing antibody (NAb) and of T-cell medi...

Patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) present an exacerbated inflammatory response associated with tissue damage and ulcer development. In recent years, higher rates of failure to pentavalent ...

Virus circular RNAs (circRNA) have been reported to be extensively expressed and play important roles in viral infections. In our previous study, we built the first database of virus circRNAs named...

Coxsackievirus B4 (CVB4) has one of the highest proportions of fatal outcomes of other enterovirus serotypes. However, the pathogenesis of severe respiratory disease caused by CVB4 infection remain...

Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection remains one of the major global public health concerns, and it develop into liver fibrosis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. Recent evidence sugges...

Abstract Intestinal microsporidiosis is most often caused by Enterocytozoon bieneusi, and to a lesser extent by species of the genus Encephalitozoon. Until now, Encephalitozoon hellem was not clearly known to induce disease restricted to the intestine, or rarely in HIV subjects or in tropical countries. We report here 11 cases of delineated intestinal microsporidioses due to E. hellem diagnosed in

Abstract Background Indices for predicting HBsAg or HBeAg seroconversion in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection during antiviral therapy remain elusive. Objective We aimed to investigate if the presence of HBsAb-specific B cells at baseline can predict HBsAg or HBeAg seroconversion in patients with chronic HBV being treated with peg-IFN-α or nucleotide analogues (NAs). Methods 134

Published in Emerging Microbes & Infections (Just accepted, 2023)

Abstract: Ecuador had substantial COVID-19-mortality during 2020 despite early implementation of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs). Resource-limited settings like Ecuador have high proportions of informal labour which entail high human mobility, questioning efficacy of NPIs. We performed a retrospective observational study in Ecuador’s national reference laboratory for viral respiratory infections

Abstract Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases in China has grown rapidly after adjustment of the dynamic zero-COVID-19 strategy. However, how different vaccination states affect symptoms, severity and post COVID conditions was unclear. Here, we used an online questionnaire to investigate the infection status of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) among 11897 participants

Abstract Influenza virus is a prominent cause of respiratory illness in humans. Current influenza vaccines offer strain-specific immunity, while provide limited protection against drifted strains. Broad-spectrum influenza vaccines can induce broad and long-term immunity, and thus is regarded as a future direction for the development of next-generation influenza vaccines. In this study, we have conceptualized

Abstract Currently, West-Nile virus (WNV) is spreading worldwide to colder regions due to climate change. Human mortality and morbidity are prevalent and steadily increasing, associated with costs to public health systems. Therefore, the question of the impact of scientific engagement arises. What trends, barriers, and incentives for research related to global burdens are important in this context

ABSTRACT: Staphylococcus aureus is a major human pathogen responsible for a wide range of clinical infections. SaeRS is one of the two-component systems in S. aureus that modulate multiple virulence factors. Although SaeR is required for S. aureus to develop an infection, inhibitors have not been reported. Using an in vivo knockdown method, we demonstrated that SaeR is targetable for the discovery

Recent reports documenting sporadic infections in carnivorous mammals worldwide with highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b have raised concerns about the potential risk of adaptation to sustained transmission in mammals, including humans. We report H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b infection of two grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) from coastal waters of The Netherlands and Germany in

Abstract Klebsiella pneumoniae is an important human pathogen known for its resistance to carbapenem antibiotics, especially the increasing carbapenem-resistant hypervirulent variants. The carbapenem resistance is mainly caused by the carbapenemase gene blaKPC which was commonly found on the IncFII transferable plasmids in K. pneumoniae ST11 isolates in regions of China. However, the mechanisms of

Abstract The emergence of novel betacoronaviruses has posed significant financial and human health burdens, necessitating the development of appropriate tools to combat future outbreaks. In this study, we have characterized a human cell line, IGROV-1, as a robust tool to detect, propagate, and titrate betacoronaviruses SARS-CoV-2 and HCoV-OC43. IGROV-1 cells can be used for serological assays, antiviral

Background: Omicron had swept the mainland China between December 2022 and January 2023, while SARS-CoV-2 still continued to evolve. To fully prepare for the next wave, it’s urgent to evaluate the humoral immune response post BA.5/BF.7 breakthrough infection against predominant sublineages among existing vaccination strategies and the elders. Method: This study enrolled a longitudinal young-adult cohort