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Roger Pelle

Bio: Roger Pelle is an academic researcher from International Livestock Research Institute. The author has contributed to research in topics: Theileria parva & East Coast fever. The author has an hindex of 21, co-authored 90 publications receiving 1568 citations.


Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The identification of five candidate vaccine antigens that are the targets of MHC class I-restricted CD8(+) CTL from immune cattle provide a basis for developing a CTL-targeted anti-East Coast fever subunit vaccine and orthologs of these antigen may be vaccine targets for other apicomplexan parasites.
Abstract: East Coast fever, caused by the tick-borne intracellular apicomplexan parasite Theileria parva, is a highly fatal lymphoproliferative disease of cattle. The pathogenic schizont-induced lymphocyte transformation is a unique cancer-like condition that is reversible with parasite removal. Schizont-infected cell-directed CD8(+) cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) constitute the dominant protective bovine immune response after a single exposure to infection. However, the schizont antigens targeted by T. parva-specific CTL are undefined. Here we show the identification of five candidate vaccine antigens that are the targets of MHC class I-restricted CD8(+) CTL from immune cattle. CD8(+) T cell responses to these antigens were boosted in T. parva-immune cattle resolving a challenge infection and, when used to immunize naive cattle, induced CTL responses that significantly correlated with survival from a lethal parasite challenge. These data provide a basis for developing a CTL-targeted anti-East Coast fever subunit vaccine. In addition, orthologs of these antigens may be vaccine targets for other apicomplexan parasites.

131 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This report outlines a rapid and simple method which requires just a 5 minute denaturation of RNA samples in loading buffer and allows the experimenter to monitor the integrity and migration of major RNA species and size markers during electrophoresis.
Abstract: Current methods for Northern blot analysis to determine mRNA abundance in tissues are tedious and utilize toxic chemicals. The requirement for chemicals of high purity, free of ribonucleases, and the lability of RNA, in comparison to DNA, are additional factors preventing wider use of the technique. For Northern blot analysis, RNA is generally denatured with glyoxal (1) or formaldehyde (2) prior to electrophoresis in agarose gels. The gels require extensive washing for ethidium bromide or acridine orange staining to localize major RNA species or fragments used as size markers. These manipulations are time-consuming and contain several steps where ribonucleases can be introduced, which can result in failure of the experiment. In addition, these techniques do not lend themselves to easy visualization of the degree of RNA migration during electrophoresis or allow the experimenter to determine the efficiency of transfer of the RNA following blotting. This report outlines a rapid and simple method which requires just a 5 minute denaturation of RNA samples in loading buffer and allows the experimenter to monitor the integrity and migration of major RNA species and size markers during electrophoresis (Figure 1A). In addition, the stained RNA is easily detected following blotting onto a nylon or nitrocellulose membrane, thus allowing the experimenter to determine the efficiency of transfer of the RNA from the gel (Figure IB). The technique is summarized in the following three easy steps.

109 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The purine salvage pathway of parasitic protozoa is currently considered as a target for drug development because these organisms cannot synthesize purines de novo, and insight into the structure and mechanism of the involved enzymes can aid in the development of potent inhibitors, leading to new curative drugs.

97 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Muguga cocktail ITM vaccine, which provides broad-spectrum immunity to ECF, is now a registered product in three countries in eastern Africa and effort is directed at improving and scaling up the production process to make this vaccine more widely available on a commercial basis in the region.

94 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Identifying the epitopes recognized in six T. parva-immune cattle of different major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genotypes demonstrated that the identified antigens are inherently dominant in animals with the corresponding MHC genotypes.
Abstract: Immunity against the bovine intracellular protozoan parasite Theileria parva has been shown to be mediated by CD8 T cells. Six antigens targeted by CD8 T cells from T. parva-immune cattle of different major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genotypes have been identified, raising the prospect of developing a subunit vaccine. To facilitate further dissection of the specificity of protective CD8 T-cell responses and to assist in the assessment of responses to vaccination, we set out to identify the epitopes recognized in these T. parva antigens and their MHC restriction elements. Nine epitopes in six T. parva antigens, together with their respective MHC restriction elements, were successfully identified. Five of the cytotoxic-T-lymphocyte epitopes were found to be restricted by products of previously described alleles, and four were restricted by four novel restriction elements. Analyses of CD8 T-cell responses to five of the epitopes in groups of cattle carrying the defined restriction elements and immunized with live parasites demonstrated that, with one exception, the epitopes were consistently recognized by animals of the respective genotypes. The analysis of responses was extended to animals immunized with multiple antigens delivered in separate vaccine constructs. Specific CD8 T-cell responses were detected in 19 of 24 immunized cattle. All responder cattle mounted responses specific for antigens for which they carried an identified restriction element. By contrast, only 8 of 19 responder cattle displayed a response to antigens for which they did not carry an identified restriction element. These data demonstrate that the identified antigens are inherently dominant in animals with the corresponding MHC genotypes.

81 citations


Cited by
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Journal Article
Fumio Tajima1
30 Oct 1989-Genomics
TL;DR: It is suggested that the natural selection against large insertion/deletion is so weak that a large amount of variation is maintained in a population.

11,521 citations

01 Aug 2000
TL;DR: Assessment of medical technology in the context of commercialization with Bioentrepreneur course, which addresses many issues unique to biomedical products.
Abstract: BIOE 402. Medical Technology Assessment. 2 or 3 hours. Bioentrepreneur course. Assessment of medical technology in the context of commercialization. Objectives, competition, market share, funding, pricing, manufacturing, growth, and intellectual property; many issues unique to biomedical products. Course Information: 2 undergraduate hours. 3 graduate hours. Prerequisite(s): Junior standing or above and consent of the instructor.

4,833 citations

10 Dec 2007
TL;DR: The experiments on both rice and human genome sequences demonstrate that EVM produces automated gene structure annotation approaching the quality of manual curation.
Abstract: EVidenceModeler (EVM) is presented as an automated eukaryotic gene structure annotation tool that reports eukaryotic gene structures as a weighted consensus of all available evidence. EVM, when combined with the Program to Assemble Spliced Alignments (PASA), yields a comprehensive, configurable annotation system that predicts protein-coding genes and alternatively spliced isoforms. Our experiments on both rice and human genome sequences demonstrate that EVM produces automated gene structure annotation approaching the quality of manual curation.

1,528 citations

Journal Article
TL;DR: A review of the turn of events and points of view of biogas in and its utilization for power, heat and in transport in the European Union (EU) and its Member States is presented in this article.
Abstract: This paper presents a review of the turn of events and points of view of biogas in and its utilization for power, heat and in transport in the European Union (EU) and its Member States. Biogas creation has expanded in the EU, empowered by the sustainable power strategies, notwithstanding monetary, ecological and atmosphere benefits, to arrive at 18 billion m3 methane (654 PJ) in 2015, speaking to half of the worldwide biogas creation. The EU is the world chief in biogas power creation, with more than 10 GW introduced and various 17,400 biogas plants, in contrast with the worldwide biogas limit of 15 GW in 2015. In the EU, biogas conveyed 127 TJ of warmth and 61 TWh of power in 2015; about half of absolute biogas utilization in Europe was bound to warm age. Europe is the world's driving maker of biomethane for the utilization as a vehicle fuel or for infusion into the petroleum gas network, with 459 plants in 2015 creating 1.2 billion m3 and 340 plants taking care of into the gas network, with a limit of 1.5 million m3. Around 697 biomethane filling stations guaranteed the utilization 160 million m3 of biomethane as a transport fuel in 2015.

703 citations