Front Microbiol 2013, 4:245.PubMedCentralPubMed 63. Ghosh A, Dowd SE, Zurek L: Dogs leaving the ICU carry a very large multi-drug resistant enterococcal population with capacity for biofilm formation and horizontal gene transfer. PLoS One 2011, 6:e22451.PubMedCentralPubMedCrossRef Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Authors’ contributions

EJ, IC, AMB, VM and, LF isolated, identified and characterized the strains. VL and MF performed the BA analysis. ML and CT carried the MLST analysis. CT, MAA and JMR designed experimental procedures. EJ, JMR, MAA and CT drafted the manuscript. All authors read, revised and approved the manuscript.”
“Background Human enterovirus 71 is a non-enveloped RNA virus of the Picornaviridae family. The virion is around 30 nm in diameter containing a single-stranded positive-sense RNA selleckchem genome of approximately 7500 nucleotides [1–3]. EGFR inhibitor The whole genome is translated into a single large polyprotein that can be subsequently processed by protease digestion to produce four capsid subunit proteins, VP1 to VP4 selleck screening library and other nonstructural proteins. The icosahedral capsid is composed of 60 sets structural

proteins (VP1 to VP4). It has been shown that VP1-3 form a pseudo T = 3 icosahedral capsid that are located on the surface of viral capsid [4]. VP4 is located inside, which is approximately 70 amino acids in length and is myristoylated at the N terminus [5, 6]. Crystallographic analysis showed that the mature EV71 virus is structurally similar to other enteroviruses [7]. EV71 and coxsackievirus A16 (CA16) have been identified as the two major etiological agents of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) [8, 9]. Large outbreaks of HFMD have recently been reported in the Asia-Pacific region, which is becoming Telomerase a common acute viral disease in these areas and posing a serious health threat to children [10–13]. While HFMD is usually mild and self-limiting, it may lead to severe neurological complications

and even death [14, 15]. However, no effective vaccine is yet available to prevent EV71 infection. The evidence that maternal mice vaccinated with the EV71 virus-like particles (VLPs) can confer protection to neonatal mice against lethal challenge reveals an essential role of neutralizing antibody in the protection against infection [3]. To determine the immunodominant epitopes of EV71 capsid protein, antisera generated from animals immunized with formalin-inactivated EV71 vaccine were screened against a set of overlapping synthetic peptides covering the entire sequences of VP1, VP2 and VP3 of EV71. Several linear immunodominant neutralization epitopes have been successfully identified in VP1 and VP2 proteins [16–20]. Numerous studies reported that synthetic peptides containing neutralizing epitope of VP1 elicited neutralizing antibody response and protected neonatal mice against lethal challenges [17–20].