Mechanisms involved in the establishment of viral persistance

病毒感染仍然是世界范围内的一个主要健康问题。迫切需要更多和更好的疫苗来预防一些人和动物的病毒感染。有趣的是，大多数可用的有效疫苗都是通过产生抗体进行保护的。然而，有效产生抗体和提供保护的机制仍然知之甚少。一些病毒感染会引发快速而有效的抗体反应，而另一些病毒感染只会引起较差和较晚的反应。我们正在研究高效生产高质量抗体所涉及的分子机制，这些抗体可以提供对病毒感染的保护。因此，这项研究计划的目的是确定持续病毒诱导中和抗体的能力较差的原因，以及提高其免疫原性的方法。这项研究的结果将有助于改进设计更有效的疫苗，以对抗由丙型肝炎病毒和艾滋病毒引起的重要人类病毒感染。

Virus infections remain a major health concern worldwide. There is an urgent need for more and better vaccines against a number of human and animal viral infections. Interestingly, most of the available effective vaccines protect through the production of antibodies. However, the mechanisms by which antibodies are efficiently generated and confer protection remain poorly understood. Some virus infections trigger a rapid and efficient antibody response whereas others only induce poor and late responses. We are studying the molecular mechanisms involved in the efficient production of antibodies of high quality that can confer protection against virus infections. This research program will thus aim at identifying the reasons for the poor ability of persisting viruses to induce neutralizing antibodies and ways to improve their immunogenicity. The results from this study will help to improve the design of more effective vaccines against important human viral infections like those caused by HCV and HIV.