Bioengineered pseudovirus nanoparticles displaying the HA1 antigens of influenza viruses for enhanced immunogenicity

Even with implementation of current influenza vaccines,influenza still claims up to 500,000 lives worldwide annually,indicating a need for a better vaccine strategy.We have developed a technology to generate unique S_(60)-HA1 pseudovirus nanoparticles(PVNPs)that display the receptor-binding HA1 domains of influenza viruses.Each self-assembled S_(60)-HA1 PVNP consists of a T=1 icosahedral S_(60) nanoparticle that resembles the inner shell of norovirus capsid and 60 surface-displayed HA1 antigens that are excellent vaccine targets.Soluble S_(60)-HA1 PVNPs presenting HA1 antigens of H7N9 influenza virus subtypes have been produced efficiently in large amount.Their three-dimensional(3D)structures have been solved by cryogenic electron microscopy.The PVNP-displayed HA1 antigens react with HA-specific antibody,and retain authentic sialic acid binding specificity and hemagglutinate human erythrocytes.The PVNPs are highly immunogenic,eliciting high titers of HA1-specific antibodies in mice and the mouse sera strongly inhibited hemagglutinations of homologous and heterologous influenza virus HA proteins.Therefore,the S_(60)-HA1 PVNPs may provide useful reagents to study influenza viruses and offer a potential new vaccine tactic to fight the deadly influenza disease.

Enhanced photon communication through Bayesian estimation with an SNSPD array

Laser communication using photons should consider not only the transmission environment’s effects,but also the performance of the single-photon detector used and the photon number distribution.Photon communication based on the superconducting nanowire single-photon detector(SNSPD)is a new technology that addresses the current sensitivity limitations at the level of single photons in deep space communication.The communication’s bit error rate(BER)is limited by dark noise in the space environment and the photon number distribution with a traditional single-pixel SNSPD,which is unable to resolve the photon number distribution.In this work,an enhanced photon communication method was proposed based on the photon number resolving function of four-pixel array SNSPDs.A simulated picture transmission was carried out,and the error rate in this counting mode can be reduced by 2 orders of magnitude when compared with classical optical communication.However,in the communication mode using photon-enhanced counting,the four-pixel response amplitude for counting was found to restrain the communication rate,and this counting mode is extremely dependent on the incident light intensity through experiments,which limits the sensitivity and speed of the SNSPD array’s performance advantage.Therefore,a BER theoretical calculation model for laser communication was presented using the Bayesian estimation algorithm in order to analyze the selection of counting methods for information acquisition under different light intensities and to make better use of the SNSPD array’s high sensitivity and speed and thus to obtain a lower BER.The counting method and theoretical model proposed in this work refer to array SNSPDs in the deep space field.