Explanipedia

Maternal IgE Influence on Fetal and Infant Health Open

Jozef Balla, Abhay P. S. Rathore, Ashley L. St. John · 2025

Immunoglobulin E (IgE) is the most recently discovered and evolved mammalian antibody type, best known for interacting with mast cells (MCs) as immune effectors. IgE‐mediated antigen sensing by MC provides protection from parasites, venomo…

Characterization of group I introns in generating circular RNAs as vaccines Open

Kuo‐Chieh Liao, Majid Eshaghi, Zebin Hong, Tzuen Yih Saw, Junghyun Lim , et al. · 2025

Circular RNAs are an increasingly important class of RNA molecules that can be engineered as RNA vaccines and therapeutics. Here, we screened eight different group I introns for their ability to circularize and delineated different feature…

P-192. Evaluating the Association of Unnecessary Antibiotic Use with Hospital-Onset Clostridioides difficile Infection at a New York City Hospital Open

Ashley L. St. John, Antoinette Acbo, Kelsie Cowman, Yi Guo, Priya Nori , et al. · 2025

Background Hospital Onset-Clostridioides difficile infection (HO-CDI) is defined as collection of a positive C. difficile lab result on or after day 4 of a patient’s hospital admission. Reduction of HO-CDI remains a multidisciplinary effor…

C. Diff-erently: evaluating the association of inappropriate antibiotic use with hospital-onset Clostridioides difficile infection Open

Ashley L. St. John, Antoinette Acbo, Kelsie Cowman, Yi Guo, Priya Nori , et al. · 2025

Hospital-onset C. difficile infection (HO-CDI) remains a common cause of healthcare-associated infection. This study evaluated antibiotic use (AU) and appropriateness in hospital-onset C. difficile cases compared to matched controls in an …

Evolving vaccine discovery and development pathways for emerging pathogens Open

Ashley L. St. John, Eng Eong Ooi · 2024

NKT cells promote Th1 immune bias to dengue virus that governs long-term protective antibody dynamics Open

Youngjoo Choi, Wilfried A. A. Saron, Aled O’Neill, Manouri P Senanayake, Annelies Wilder‐Smith , et al. · 2024

NKT cells are innate-like T cells, recruited to the skin during viral infection, yet their contributions to long-term immune memory to viruses are unclear. We identified granzyme K, a product made by cytotoxic cells including NKT cells, as…

Mucosal SARS-CoV-2 vaccination of rodents elicits superior systemic T central memory function and cross-neutralising antibodies against variants of concern Open

Aled O’Neill, Chinmay Kumar Mantri, Chee Wah Tan, Wilfried A. A. Saron, Santhosh Kambaiah Nagaraj , et al. · 2023

This study was funded by Duke-NUS Medical School, the Singapore Ministry of Education, the National Medical Research Council of Singapore and a DBT-BIRAC Grant.

Mast cell activation in lungs during SARS-CoV-2 infection associated with lung pathology and severe COVID-19 Open

Janessa Y.J. Tan, Danielle E. Anderson, Abhay P. S. Rathore, Aled O’Neill, Chinmay Kumar Mantri , et al. · 2023

Lung inflammation is a hallmark of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in patients who are severely ill, and the pathophysiology of disease is thought to be immune mediated. Mast cells (MCs) are polyfunctional immune cells present in the a…

Dengue: Update on Clinically Relevant Therapeutic Strategies and Vaccines Open

Monica Palanichamy Kala, Ashley L. St. John, Abhay P. S. Rathore · 2023

Opinion statement Dengue viruses (DENV) continue to circulate worldwide, resulting in a significant burden on human health. There are four antigenically distinct serotypes of DENV, an infection of which could result in a potentially life-t…

Promises and challenges of mucosal COVID-19 vaccines Open

Abhay P. S. Rathore, Ashley L. St. John · 2023

Conventional and non-conventional antigen presentation by mast cells Open

C. H. Tung, Abhay P. S. Rathore, Ashley L. St. John · 2023

Summary Mast cells (MCs) are multifunctional immune cells that express a diverse repertoire of surface receptors and pre-stored bioactive mediators. They are traditionally recognized for their involvement in allergic and inflammatory respo…

Mucosal vaccination for SARS-CoV-2 elicits superior systemic T central memory function and cross-neutralizing antibodies against variants of concern Open

Aled O’Neill, Monica Palanichamy Kala, Tan Chee Wah, Wilfried A. A. Saron, Chinmay Kumar Mantri , et al. · 2022

COVID-19 vaccines used in humans are highly effective in limiting disease and death caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, yet improved vaccines that provide greater protection at mucosal surfaces, which could reduce break-through infections and …

Transitional premonocytes emerge in the periphery for host defense against bacterial infections Open

Ye Chean Teh, Ming Yao Chooi, Dehua Liu, Immanuel Kwok, Ghee Chuan Lai , et al. · 2022

Circulating Ly6C hi monocytes often undergo cellular death upon exhaustion of their antibacterial effector functions, which limits their capacity for subsequent macrophage differentiation. This shrouds the understanding on how the host rep…

Editorial: Viral Infection at the Maternal-Fetal Interface Open

Abhay P. S. Rathore, Vivian Vasconcelos Costa, Ashley L. St. John · 2022

EDITORIAL article Front. Immunol., 04 February 2022Sec. Viral Immunology Volume 13 - 2022 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2022.828681

Dengue virus infection modifies mosquito blood-feeding behavior to increase transmission to the host Open

Benjamin Wong Wei Xiang, Wilfried A. A. Saron, James Stewart, Arthur Hain, Varsha Ashok Walvekar , et al. · 2022

Significance Because dengue viruses are spread by mosquitoes during biting, transmission capacity depends on mosquito-biting behavior. For this reason, it is critical to understand how infection in mosquitoes influences biting. To answer t…

Immunological and Pathological Landscape of Dengue Serotypes 1-4 Infections in Immune-Competent Mice Open

Abhay P. S. Rathore, Chinmay Kumar Mantri, Meredith W. Tan, Roksana Shirazi, Andrew Nishida , et al. · 2021

Dengue virus (DENV), a Flavivirus, causes a broad spectrum of disease in humans with key clinical signs including thrombocytopenia, vascular leakage and hemorrhaging. A major obstacle to understanding DENV immunity has been the lack of a v…

Signatures of mast cell activation are associated with severe COVID-19 Open

Janessa Y.J. Tan, Danielle E. Anderson, Abhay P. S. Rathore, Aled O’Neill, Chinmay Kumar Mantri , et al. · 2021

Lung inflammation is a hallmark of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in severely ill patients and the pathophysiology of disease is thought to be immune-mediated. Mast cells (MCs) are polyfunctional immune cells present in the airways, w…

Maternal Immunity and Vaccination Influence Disease Severity in Progeny in a Novel Mast Cell-Deficient Mouse Model of Severe Dengue Open

Chinmay Kumar Mantri, Gayathri Soundarajan, Wilfried A. A. Saron, Abhay P. S. Rathore, Sylvie Alonso , et al. · 2021

Sub-neutralizing concentrations of antibodies in dengue infected patients is a major risk factor for the development of dengue hemorrhagic fever and dengue shock syndrome. Here, we describe a mouse model with a deficiency in mast cells (MC…

Coding and non-coding roles of MOCCI (C15ORF48) coordinate to regulate host inflammation and immunity Open

Cheryl Lee, Baptiste Kerouanton, Sonia Chothani, Shan Zhang, Ying Chen , et al. · 2021

Mito-SEPs are small open reading frame-encoded peptides that localize to the mitochondria to regulate metabolism. Motivated by an intriguing negative association between mito-SEPs and inflammation, here we screen for mito-SEPs that modify …

Animals as potential reservoirs for dengue transmission: A systematic review Open

Sylvia Xiao Wei Gwee, Ashley L. St. John, Gregory C. Gray, Junxiong Pang · 2021

Th1-Polarized, Dengue Virus-Activated Human Mast Cells Induce Endothelial Transcriptional Activation and Permeability Open

Ayesa Syenina, Wilfried A. A. Saron, Cyril J. Jagaraj, Siham Bibi, Michel Arock , et al. · 2020

Dengue virus (DENV), an arbovirus, strongly activates mast cells (MCs), which are key immune cells for pathogen immune surveillance. In animal models, MCs promote clearance of local peripheral DENV infections but, conversely, also promote …

ELKS1 controls mast cell degranulation by regulating the transcription of Stxbp2 and Syntaxin 4 via Kdm2b stabilization Open

Hiu Yan Lam, Surendar Arumugam, Han‐Gyu Bae, Cheng Chun Wang, Sangyong Jung , et al. · 2020

ELKS1 controls mast cell degranulation by regulating the transcription of Stxbp2 and Syntaxin 4 via Kdm2b stabilization.

Serum chymase levels correlate with severe dengue warning signs and clinical fluid accumulation in hospitalized pediatric patients Open

Abhay P. S. Rathore, Manouri P Senanayake, A S Athapathu, Sunethra Gunasena, Irantha Karunaratna , et al. · 2020

Dengue induces a spectrum of severity in humans from the milder dengue fever to severe disease, or dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF). Chymase is a candidate biomarker that may aid dengue prognosis. This prospective study aimed to identify whe…

Combinatorial Single-Cell Analyses of Granulocyte-Monocyte Progenitor Heterogeneity Reveals an Early Uni-potent Neutrophil Progenitor Open

Immanuel Kwok, Étienne Becht, Yu Xia, Melissa Ng, Ye Chean Teh , et al. · 2020

Protective and pathogenic roles for mast cells during viral infections Open

Abhay P. S. Rathore, Ashley L. St. John · 2020

Decision letter: Complement opsonization of HIV affects primary infection of human colorectal mucosa and subsequent activation of T cells Open

Nicola Harris, William A. Paxton, Ashley L. St. John · 2020

Article Figures and data Abstract Introduction Results Discussion Materials and methods Data availability References Decision letter Author response Article and author information Metrics Abstract HIV transmission via genital and colorecta…

Japanese encephalitis virus and its mechanisms of neuroinvasion Open

Justin T. Hsieh, Ashley L. St. John · 2020

Cross-Reactive Immunity Among Flaviviruses Open

Abhay P. S. Rathore, Ashley L. St. John · 2020

Flaviviruses consist of significant human pathogens responsible for hundreds of millions of infections each year. Their antigenic relationships generate immune responses that are cross-reactive to multiple flaviviruses and their widespread…

Novel mucosal adjuvant, mastoparan-7, improves cocaine vaccine efficacy Open

Ashley L. St. John, Hae Woong Choi, Q. David Walker, Bruce E. Blough, Cynthia M. Kuhn , et al. · 2020

Cocaine is one of the most potent and addictive psychostimulants known and there are no available pharmacotherapies to treat cocaine addiction. Here we describe a novel cocaine vaccine employing the mucosal adjuvant and mast cell-activatin…

Dengue virus–elicited tryptase induces endothelial permeability and shock Open

Abhay P. S. Rathore, Chinmay Kumar Mantri, Siti A. B. Aman, Ayesa Syenina, Justin S. G. Ooi , et al. · 2019

Dengue virus (DENV) infection causes a characteristic pathology in humans involving dysregulation of the vascular system. In some patients with dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF), vascular pathology can become severe, resulting in extensive mi…

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