Baidong Hou

Keywords germinal center competition affinity epitope virus-like particle VLP vaccine Research topic(s) CP: Immunology Introduction The germinal center (GC) response plays a crucial role in generating effective anti-viral responses.1,2,3 Within the GC, a competitive process akin to Darwinian selection occurs among B cells, driving antibody affinity maturation.1,4 Previous studies have demonstrated that the competition for entry into the GC can restrict the participation of low-affinity B...

Streptococcus (S.) pneumoniae strains vary considerably in their ability to cause invasive disease in humans, which is at least in part determined by the capsular serotype. Platelets have been implicated as sentinel cells in the circulation for host defence. One of their utensils for this function is the expression of Toll-like receptors (TLRs). We here aimed to investigate platelet response to S. pneumoniae and a role for TLRs herein. Platelets were stimulated using four serotypes of S.