PLoS medicine
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Melanoma patients vaccinated with tumor-associated antigens frequently develop measurable peptide-specific CD8+ T cell responses; however, such responses often do not confer clinical benefit. Understanding why vaccine-elicited responses are beneficial in some patients but not in others will be important to improve targeted cancer immunotherapies. ⋯ These results suggest that factors that shape the peptide-specific T cell repertoire after vaccination may be different from those that affect the endogenous response. Furthermore, our findings suggest that current heteroclitic peptide vaccination protocols drive expansion of peptide-specific T cells with a diverse range of recognition efficiencies, a significant proportion of which are unable to respond to melanoma cells. Therefore, it is critical that the recognition efficiency of vaccine-elicited T cells be measured, with the goal of advancing those modalities that elicit T cells with the greatest potential of tumor reactivity.
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Trachoma accounts for 15% of blindness worldwide, affecting the world's poorest communities. How can the disease be controlled?
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Are short synthetic peptides the key to developing cancer vaccines? And what are the obstacles in the way?
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The development of enzyme replacement therapy for Gaucher disease was a triumph of translational medicine. What were the key steps in its development? What are the controversies surrounding its use?