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This invention claims antibodies and/or fragments thereof specific for hepatitis A virus (HAV) and the use of the antibodies in the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of hepatitis A. Hepatitis A is the most common type of hepatitis reported in the United States, which reports an estimated 134,000 cases annually, and infects at least 1.4 million people worldwide each year. HAV is a positive sense RNA virus that is transmitted via the fecal-oral route, mainly through contaminated water supplies and food sources.

This invention describes a method for vaccination against Ebola virus. Outbreaks of hemorrhagic fever caused by the Ebola virus, particularly the Zaire subtype, are associated with high mortality rates. The virus is very contagious, and during an outbreak, presents a threat to anybody who comes into contact with an infected person. Because the virus progresses so rapidly and the mortality rate is so high, there is little opportunity to develop natural immunity, making vaccination a promising intervention.

The invention is a method for improving image quality in MR imaging methods using the SENSE (SENSitivity Encoding) method, which is known to have degraded image quality due to numerical ill-conditioning (so called g-factor loss). The invention improves the numerical conditioning by means of an adaptive regularization (matrix conditioning), thereby improving image quality for a given scan time. This is accomplished by adaptively adjusting the regularization parameter for each pixel position to achieve a target ghost artifact suppression.

West Nile virus (WNV) has recently emerged in the U.S. and is considered a significant emerging disease that has embedded itself over a considerable region of the U.S. WNV infections have been recorded in humans as well as in different animals. From 1999-2014, WNV killed 1,765 people in the U.S. and caused severe disease in more than 41,762 others. This project is part of NIAID's comprehensive emerging infectious disease program.

The present invention discloses a method of enhancing progenitor cell differentiation, including enhancing myogenesis, neurogenesis and hematopoiesis, by contacting a progenitor cell with an effective amount of a deacetylase inhibitor (DI). The progenitor cell can be part of cell culture, such as a cell culture used for in vitro or in vivo analysis of progenitor cell differentiation, or can be part of an organism, such as a human or other mammal.

A human mast cell line LAD2 that more closely resembles normal in vivo and in vitro human mast cells by expressing functional FcepsilonRI receptors and responding to stem cell factor (SCF) with proliferation, as described in Leuk Res. 2003 Aug;27(8):677-82 and developed by the laboratory of Dr. Dean Metcalfe at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.  This cell line also releases mediators by cross-linking FcgammaRI (CD64) receptors and express FcgammaRII (CD32).

The invention relates to a dengue virus tetravalent vaccine containing a common 30-nucleotide deletion (delta30) in the 3'-untranslated region (UTR) of the genome of dengue virus serotypes 1, 2, 3, and 4. The previously identified delta30 attenuating mutation, created in dengue virus type 4 (DEN4) by the removal of 30 nucleotides from the 3'-UTR, is also capable of attenuating a wild-type strain of dengue virus type 1 (DEN1).

NF-kB has been found to be important in immune responses, cell proliferation, apoptosis, and in organ development. Several years ago it was discovered that an IKKgamma/NEMO protein was essential as an adaptor molecule to mediate TNF-alpha, IL-1, and oncoprotein induced activation of NF-kB. Mutation in IKKgamma/NEMO also results in two human genetic diseases, Familial incontinentia pigmenti and hypohidrotic/anhidrotic ectodermal dysplasia. The NIH announces mouse monoclonal antibodies to IKKgamma/NEMO that are far superior to other immunological reagents.

The invention provides a deflectable tip guiding device, such as a catheter, that enables the operator to vary the radius of curvature of the tip of the catheter. This is a novel variation on the classic "fixed fulcrum" tip deflectors used in minimally invasive procedures in open surgical treatments. The described device permits a more comprehensive ability to navigate complex geometric pathways in patient's body and enables better access to target structures (e.g., to all endomyocardial walls from a transaortic approach).

This technology describes peptide mimotopes of lipooligosaccharides (LOS) from nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) and Moraxella catarrhalis that are suitable for developing novel vaccines against the respective pathogens, for which there are currently no licensed vaccines. The mimotopes not only immunologically mimic LOSs from NTHi and M. catarrhalis but will also bind to antibodies specific for the respective LOS. NTHi and M. catarrhalis are common pathogens that cause otitis media in children and lower respiratory tract infections in adults.