This article provides an overview of developments in approaches to identify novel bacterial components for use in recombinant subunit vaccines. In particular it describes the processes involved in "reverse vaccinology", and some associated complementary technologies such as proteomics that can be used in the identification of new and potentially useful vaccine antigens. Results obtained from th...

A frequently passaged laboratory strain of Campylobacter jejuni was confirmed by serotyping on the basis of thermostable antigens and by bacterial chromosomal restriction endonuclease digests to be the causative agent of enteritis in a laboratory worker.

Measurements indicate that bacterial antigens increase in volume as the result of specific agglutination. There is a general parallelism between the increase in antigenic volume and the concentration of the immune serum. The phenomenon is specific. There is no increase with normal serum; with absorbed serum the increase is slight and it can be correlated with the presence of unabsorbed antibody...

In this paper there is described a new method for the demonstration of antigen-antibody combination, as follows: A rabbit sensitized a week previously to some animal protein receives a skin-preparatory injection of a potent bacterial filtrate. 24 hours after the skin preparation the rabbit is injected intravenously with the same animal protein. From 4 to 5 hours later there appears severe hemor...

asthma is a complex and multifactorial disorder. several studies have reported association between different hla- dqb1 and hla- drb1 alleles and allergic asthma. the aim of the present study was to investigate the association of hla-class ii alleles and haplotypes, with total serum ige and the results of the skin prick test in iranian children with allergic asthma. a total of 112 patients with ...

Vaccination is an efficient means of combating infectious disease burden globally. However, routine vaccines for the world's major human parasitic diseases do not yet exist. Vaccines based on carbohydrate antigens are a viable option for parasite vaccine development, given the proven success of carbohydrate vaccines to combat bacterial infections. We will review the key components of carbohydra...

Km allotype antigens are serologic markers expressed on kappa light chains of human immunoglobulins. To determine whether th Km phenotype of an individual is related to his ability to make antibodies to polysaccharide antigens, we correlated the Km allotypes of 129 healthy caucasian adults with the concentrations of specific antibodies to three bacterial polysaccharide antigens after immunizati...

Undoubtedly, mast cells play a central role in allergic processes. Specific allergen cross-linking of IgE bound to the high affinity receptors (FcεRI) on the mast cell surface leads to the release of preformed mediators and newly synthesized mediators, i.e. metabolites of arachidonic acid and cytokines. More and more data indicate that bacteria and viruses can influence FcεRI-dependent mast cel...

Bacterial glycosyltransferases (GT) often synthesize the same glycan linkages as mammalian GT; yet, they usually have very little sequence identity. Nevertheless, enzymatic properties, folding, substrate specificities, and catalytic mechanisms of these enzyme proteins may have significant similarity. Thus, bacterial GT can be utilized for the enzymatic synthesis of both bacterial and mammalian ...

Both secondary infections and antifilarial immunity are thought to play roles in the development and progression of lymphedema. To investigate this issue, immune responses to a panel of bacterial, fungal, and parasite antigens were examined for women with lymphedema and elephantiasis (n = 28) and for women with no clinical evidence of lymphatic dysfunction who were either microfilaremic (Mf+, n...