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Influenza virus infections lead to thousands of deaths worldwide annually and billions of dollars economic burden. Despite continuing advances in our understanding of the immune evasion mechanism, the disease remains one of the foremost threat for human being. Traditional vaccines (attenuated and inactivated) mainly provide protection by inducing virus neutralizing antibodies, targeting ever changing surface antigens: Haemagultinin (HA) and Neuraminidase (NA). Due to genetic shift and immune selection pressure, prevalence of circulating influenza virus subtypes changes every year. Therefore, mismatch between circulating strain and vaccine strain can critically affect the success rate of these conventional flu vaccines, and requires continuous monitoring of circulating influenza virus subtypes and change in the vaccine formulations accordingly. The collective limitations of existing flu vaccines urgently call for the development of a novel universal vaccines that might provide the required protective immunity to a range of influenza virus subtypes. New approaches are being investigated mainly targeting conserved regions of flu proteins. Some of these approaches include universally conserved epitopes of HA, nucleoprotein (NP), capsid protein (M1) and ion channel protein (M2) that induced strong immune responses in animal models. Some attention and progress appears to be focused on vaccines based on the M2 ectodomain (M2e) employing a variety of constructs, adjuvants and delivery systems, including M2e-hepatitis B core antigen, flagellin constructs, and virus-like particles (VLP). Animal studies with these M2e candidate vaccines demonstrated that these vaccine candidates can prevent severe illness and death but not infection, which may pose difficulties in both the evaluation of clinical efficacy and approval by the regulatory authorities. VLP vaccines appear to be promising, but still are mostly limited to animal studies. The discovery and development of new and improved vaccines have been greatly facilitated by the application of new technologies. The use of nucleic acid-based vaccines, to combine the benefits of in-situ expression of antigens with the safety of inactivated and subunit vaccines, has been a key advancement. Upon their discovery more than 20 years ago, nucleic acid vaccines promised to be a safe and effective mean to mimic immunization with a live organism vaccine, particularly for induction of T cell immunity. In addition, the manufacturing of nucleic acid-based vaccines offered the potential to be relatively simple, inexpensive and generic. Reverse Vaccinology and in-silico designing of vaccines are very innovative approaches and being considered as future of vaccines. Furthermore, various immuno-therapeutic agents also being developed to treat and minimize immuno-pathological damage in patients suffering from life threatening complications. For the treatment of such pathological conditions, various novel approaches such as administration of immune suppressive cytokines, blocking co-stimulatory signals or activating co-inhibitory signal of T cell activation, are being tested both in lab and clinics. The Research Topic on influenza virus vaccine and therapeutics will give an insight in to the current status and future scope of these new innovative approaches and technologies. Moreover, these new methods will also serve as a reference tool for the development of future vaccines against several other pathogens.

T Cell Immunity --- Neutralization antibody --- Influenza Virus --- Vaccine --- Immunotherepy --- adjuvants

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Influenza virus infections lead to thousands of deaths worldwide annually and billions of dollars economic burden. Despite continuing advances in our understanding of the immune evasion mechanism, the disease remains one of the foremost threat for human being. Traditional vaccines (attenuated and inactivated) mainly provide protection by inducing virus neutralizing antibodies, targeting ever changing surface antigens: Haemagultinin (HA) and Neuraminidase (NA). Due to genetic shift and immune selection pressure, prevalence of circulating influenza virus subtypes changes every year. Therefore, mismatch between circulating strain and vaccine strain can critically affect the success rate of these conventional flu vaccines, and requires continuous monitoring of circulating influenza virus subtypes and change in the vaccine formulations accordingly. The collective limitations of existing flu vaccines urgently call for the development of a novel universal vaccines that might provide the required protective immunity to a range of influenza virus subtypes. New approaches are being investigated mainly targeting conserved regions of flu proteins. Some of these approaches include universally conserved epitopes of HA, nucleoprotein (NP), capsid protein (M1) and ion channel protein (M2) that induced strong immune responses in animal models. Some attention and progress appears to be focused on vaccines based on the M2 ectodomain (M2e) employing a variety of constructs, adjuvants and delivery systems, including M2e-hepatitis B core antigen, flagellin constructs, and virus-like particles (VLP). Animal studies with these M2e candidate vaccines demonstrated that these vaccine candidates can prevent severe illness and death but not infection, which may pose difficulties in both the evaluation of clinical efficacy and approval by the regulatory authorities. VLP vaccines appear to be promising, but still are mostly limited to animal studies. The discovery and development of new and improved vaccines have been greatly facilitated by the application of new technologies. The use of nucleic acid-based vaccines, to combine the benefits of in-situ expression of antigens with the safety of inactivated and subunit vaccines, has been a key advancement. Upon their discovery more than 20 years ago, nucleic acid vaccines promised to be a safe and effective mean to mimic immunization with a live organism vaccine, particularly for induction of T cell immunity. In addition, the manufacturing of nucleic acid-based vaccines offered the potential to be relatively simple, inexpensive and generic. Reverse Vaccinology and in-silico designing of vaccines are very innovative approaches and being considered as future of vaccines. Furthermore, various immuno-therapeutic agents also being developed to treat and minimize immuno-pathological damage in patients suffering from life threatening complications. For the treatment of such pathological conditions, various novel approaches such as administration of immune suppressive cytokines, blocking co-stimulatory signals or activating co-inhibitory signal of T cell activation, are being tested both in lab and clinics. The Research Topic on influenza virus vaccine and therapeutics will give an insight in to the current status and future scope of these new innovative approaches and technologies. Moreover, these new methods will also serve as a reference tool for the development of future vaccines against several other pathogens.

T Cell Immunity --- Neutralization antibody --- Influenza Virus --- Vaccine --- Immunotherepy --- adjuvants

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Long-lasting T cell immunity is delivered by an array of individual T lymphocytes expressing clonally distributed and highly specific antigen receptors recognizing an almost infinite number of antigens that might enter in contact with the host. Following antigen-specific priming in lymphnodes, naïve CD4 and CD8 T lymphocytes proliferate generating clones of effector cells that migrate to peripheral tissues and deliver unique antigen-specific effector functions. Moreover, a proportion of these effector lymphocytes survive as memory T cells that can be rapidly mobilized upon new exposure to the same antigen, even years after their primary induction. Innate immune cells play crucial roles in the induction and maintenance of this efficient protection system. Following the seminal discovery of Steinman and Cohen in 1974 describing a rare cell type capable of initiating antigen-specific responses in lymphnodes, Dendritic Cells (DC) have taken up the stage for several decades as professional Antigen Presenting Cells (APC). Although DC possess all attributes to prime naïve T lymphocytes, other immune cell subsets become crucial accessory cells during secondary and even primary activation. For instance, Monocytes (Mo) are rapidly recruited to inflammatory sites and have recently been recognized as capable of shaping T cell immunity, either directly through Ag presentation, or indirectly through the secretion of soluble factors. In addition, upon sensing of T cell-derived cytokines, Mo differentiate into functionally different APC types that further impact on the quality and persistence of memory T cell responses in peripheral tissues. Other innate immune cells, including Myeloid Derived Suppressor Cells, Granulocytes and iNKT lymphocytes, are known to modulate T cell activation by interacting with and modifying the function of professional APC. Notably, innate immune cell determinants also account for the tissue-specific regulation of T cell immunity. Hence, the newly discovered family of Innate Lymphoid Cells, has been recognized to shape CD4+ T cell responses at mucosal surfaces. Although the actions of innate immune cells fulfills the need of initiating and maintaining protective T cell responses, the excessive presence or activity of individual determinants may be detrimental to the host, because it could promote tissue destruction as in autoimmunity and allergy, or conversely, prevent the induction of immune responses against malignant tissues, and even modulate the response to therapeutic agents. Thus, understanding how defined innate immune cell subsets control T cell immunity is of fundamental relevance to understand human health, and of practical relevance for preventing and curing human diseases. In this research topic, we intend to provide an excellent platform for the collection of manuscripts addressing in depth how diverse innate immune cell subsets impact on T cell responses through molecularly defined pathways and evaluating the rational translation of basic research into clinical applications.

Immunedeficiencies --- Antigen Presentation --- Granulocytes --- T cell memory --- Immunotherapy --- Skin --- Mononuclear Phagocytes --- innate lymphoid cells --- Inflammatory diseases --- Cancer

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The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is an organelle crucial to many cellular functions and processes, including the mounting of T-cell immune responses. Indeed, the ER has a well-established central role in anti-tumor immunity. Perhaps best characterized is the role of the ER in the processing of antigen peptides and the subsequent peptide assembly into MHC class I and II molecules. Such MHC/tumor-derived peptide complexes are pivotal for the correct recognition of altered self or viral peptides and the subsequent clonal expansion of tumor-reactive T-cells. In line with the role of the ER in immunity, tumor-associated mutations in ER proteins, as well as ER protein content and localization can have both deleterious and advantageous effects on anti-tumor immune responses. For instance, loss of function of ER-aminopeptidases, that trim peptides to size for MHC, alter the MHC class I - peptide repertoire thereby critically and negatively affecting T-cell recognition. On the other hand, altered localization of ER proteins can have immune-promoting effects. Specifically, translocation of certain ER proteins to the cell surface has been shown to promote anti-tumor T-cell immunity by directing uptake of apoptotic tumor cells to professional antigen presenting cells, thereby facilitating anti-tumor T-cell immunity. These selected examples highlight a diverse and multi-faceted role of the ER in anti-tumor immunity. Molecular biological insights from the past decade have uncovered that ER components may affect tumor immunity and have invoked a variety of follow-up questions. For instance, how and why are ER proteins over-expressed in tumors? How do nucleotide and somatic mutations in ER chaperones/processing machinery affect the MHC/peptide complex and tumor cell immunogenicity? How do ER-proteins translocate to the cell surface? What if any is the potential role of extracellular ER protein in tumor immunotherapy/vaccines, and can they be delivered to the tumor cell surface by photodynamic therapy, anthracyclines or by other means? In this special research topics issue, we welcome basic and clinical research reports covering all aspects of ER proteins in cancer recognition by the immune system, therapy and drug development. We also welcome reports describing new insights into ER stress, signalling and homeostasis in immunogenic cell death in cancer, the effect of parasitic ER proteins on tumour growth, ER protein regulation of angiogenesis. Submission of original research articles, perspective, reviews and topical comments is encouraged. We aim to provide a comprehensive series of articles that will aid our understanding in a new and exiting avenue of tumour immunology and therapeutic development, exploiting a collection of proteins within the ER that are not obvious candidates for immunity to tumors.

Endoplasmic reticulum. --- Tumors --- Immunology. --- Oncology. --- Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress. --- Autoimmunity --- Angiogenesis --- T-cell receptors --- genome damage --- phage display --- Aminopeptidases --- Grp170 --- Oxidoreductases --- Vaccines --- chaperones --- Immunological aspects.

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The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is an organelle crucial to many cellular functions and processes, including the mounting of T-cell immune responses. Indeed, the ER has a well-established central role in anti-tumor immunity. Perhaps best characterized is the role of the ER in the processing of antigen peptides and the subsequent peptide assembly into MHC class I and II molecules. Such MHC/tumor-derived peptide complexes are pivotal for the correct recognition of altered self or viral peptides and the subsequent clonal expansion of tumor-reactive T-cells. In line with the role of the ER in immunity, tumor-associated mutations in ER proteins, as well as ER protein content and localization can have both deleterious and advantageous effects on anti-tumor immune responses. For instance, loss of function of ER-aminopeptidases, that trim peptides to size for MHC, alter the MHC class I - peptide repertoire thereby critically and negatively affecting T-cell recognition. On the other hand, altered localization of ER proteins can have immune-promoting effects. Specifically, translocation of certain ER proteins to the cell surface has been shown to promote anti-tumor T-cell immunity by directing uptake of apoptotic tumor cells to professional antigen presenting cells, thereby facilitating anti-tumor T-cell immunity. These selected examples highlight a diverse and multi-faceted role of the ER in anti-tumor immunity. Molecular biological insights from the past decade have uncovered that ER components may affect tumor immunity and have invoked a variety of follow-up questions. For instance, how and why are ER proteins over-expressed in tumors? How do nucleotide and somatic mutations in ER chaperones/processing machinery affect the MHC/peptide complex and tumor cell immunogenicity? How do ER-proteins translocate to the cell surface? What if any is the potential role of extracellular ER protein in tumor immunotherapy/vaccines, and can they be delivered to the tumor cell surface by photodynamic therapy, anthracyclines or by other means? In this special research topics issue, we welcome basic and clinical research reports covering all aspects of ER proteins in cancer recognition by the immune system, therapy and drug development. We also welcome reports describing new insights into ER stress, signalling and homeostasis in immunogenic cell death in cancer, the effect of parasitic ER proteins on tumour growth, ER protein regulation of angiogenesis. Submission of original research articles, perspective, reviews and topical comments is encouraged. We aim to provide a comprehensive series of articles that will aid our understanding in a new and exiting avenue of tumour immunology and therapeutic development, exploiting a collection of proteins within the ER that are not obvious candidates for immunity to tumors.

Endoplasmic reticulum. --- Tumors --- Immunology. --- Oncology. --- Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress. --- Immunological aspects. --- Autoimmunity --- Angiogenesis --- T-cell receptors --- genome damage --- phage display --- Aminopeptidases --- Grp170 --- Oxidoreductases --- Vaccines --- chaperones