Exosomal Vaccine Loading T Cell Epitope Peptides of SARS-CoV-2 Induces Robust CD8+ T Cell Response in HLA-A Transgenic Mice.

Purpose: Current vaccines for the SARS-CoV-2 virus mainly induce neutralizing antibodies but overlook the T cell responses. This study aims to generate an exosomal vaccine carrying T cell epitope peptides of SARS-CoV-2 for the induction of CD8+ T cell response. Methods: Thirty-one peptides presented by HLA-A0201 molecule were conjugated to the DMPE-PEG-NHS molecules, and mixed with DSPE-PEG to form the peptide-PEG-lipid micelles, then fused with exosomes to generate the exosomal vaccine, followed by purification using size-exclusion chromatography and validation by Western blotting, liquid nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) test and transmission electron microscopy. Furthermore, the exosomal vaccine was mixed with Poly (I:C) adjuvant and subcutaneously administered for three times into the hybrid mice of HLA-A0201/DR1 transgenic mice with wild-type mice. Then, the epitope-specific T cell responses were detected by ex vivo ELISPOT assay and intracellular cytokine staining. Results: The exosomal vaccine was purified from the Peak 2 fraction of FPLC and injected into the hybrid mice for three times. The IFN-γ spot forming units and the frequencies of IFN-γ+/CD8+ T cells were 10-82-fold and 13-65-fold, respectively, higher in the exosomal vaccine group compared to the Poly (I:C) control group, without visible organ toxicity. In comparison with the peptides cocktail vaccine generated in our recent work, the exosomal vaccine induced significantly stronger T cell response. Conclusion: Exosomal vaccine loading T cell epitope peptides of SARS-CoV-2 virus was initially generated without pre-modification for both peptides and exosomes, and elicited robust CD8+ T cell response in HLA-A transgenic mice.

Synthesis, characterization, and photocatalytic activities of titanate nanotubes surface-decorated by zinc oxide nanoparticles.

Nanoscaled zinc oxide (ZnO) particles with different amounts are coated on titanate nanotubes (TNTs) by a facile chemical method at room temperature. The characterizations of XPS, TEM, XRD and UV-vis spectra confirm that pure hexagonal wurtzite ZnO nanoparticles with an average size of about 9nm are distributed on the surfaces of TNTs evenly and attached strongly. The photocatalytic activities of the ZnO-TNTs nanocomposite are superior to those of P25, ZnO, TNTs and ZnO-anatase TiO2 (TNP) nanocomposite in the oxidation of rhodamine B under UV light irradiation. A comparison of the photocatalytic activities between different catalysts is discussed. Furthermore, we also find that the ZnO-TNT nanocomposite shows very favorable recycle use potential, because they have a high sedimentation rate and their photocatalytic activity is only slightly decreased even after five times of repeated uses.

[Using Fourier transform to calculate gas concentration in DOAS].

Being an analysis tool of high sensitivity, high resolution, multicomponents, real-time and fast monitoring, the differential optical absorption spectrometry (DOAS) is becoming a new method in atmosphere pollution monitoring. In the DOAS technique, many gases spectra have periodicity evidently, such as those from SO2, NO, NH3 and NO2. Aiming at three kinds of main air-polluted gases, i.e., SO2, NO and NO2 in atmosphere, the DOAS technique is used to monitor them, and Fourier transform is used to analyse the above-mentioned absorption spectra. Under the condition of Hanning Windows, Fourier transforma is used to process various gases spectra which have periodicity. In the process, the value of the characteristic frequency has a linearity relation to the gas concentration. So a new analysis method of DOAS is proposed, which is utilizing the relation between the value of the characteristic frequency and the gas concentration to deduce a linearity formula to calculate the gas concentration. So the value of the characteristic frequency can be used to get the gas concentration. For the gases with evident spectrum periodicity, such as SO2 and NO, this method is good. But for some gases with periodicity not evident, the error in the calculated concentration is beyond the allowable value. So in this method, the important process is frequency separation. It is also the main part in the future study. In a word, this method frees itself from the basic theory in the DOAS technique, cuts down on the process of the concentration calculation and the spectral analysis, and deserves further study.