BACKGROUND Malaria and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection are cofactors in the pathogenesis of endemic Burkitt lymphoma (eBL). The mechanisms by which these pathogens predispose to eBL are not known. METHODS Healthy Kenyan children with divergent malaria exposure were measured for responses to EBV latent and lytic antigens by interferon (IFN)- gamma enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) assay an...

ABST RACT Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis) infection in cattle remains a major zoonotic and economic problem in many countries. In addition, M. bovis is an important pathogen of both man and animals. The standard diagnostic test for this disease is the intradermal tuberculin test, one of the oldest immunological tests still in widespread use. However, this test can lack both sensitivity and speci...

OBJECTIVES Tuberculosis (TB) is the leading infectious disease in the developing world. Delayed-type hypersensitivity skin test diagnoses TB using tuberculin purified protein derivative (PPD), but this test is incapable of distinguishing Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) infection from bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination or an infection caused by nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM). This st...

Accurate diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) infection is critical for the treatment, prevention, and control of TB. Conventional diagnostic tests based on purified protein derivative (PPD) do not achieve the required diagnostic sensitivity. Therefore, in this study, we have evaluated the immunogenic properties of Rv1168c, a member of the PPE family, in comparison with PPD, which is routinely used i...

Background & Objectives: Annually, many Muslims fast during the month of Ramadan worldwide. This practice has different favorable medical and physiological effects, such as improved serum lipid profile and blood glucose level due to changes in diet and sleep patterns. It has also been hypothesized that Ramadan fasting may affect the immune system. As reported, Ramadan fasting can influence the ...

The role of T-cells in immunity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) infection has been extensively studied, however, that of B-cells still remains comparatively unexplored. In this study, we determined the presence and frequencies of mycobacteria-specific memory B-cells (MBCs) in peripheral blood from clinically healthy, Bacillus Calmette Guerin (BCG) vaccinated (n = 79) and un...

High levels of plasminogen activator (PA) were induced in mouse peritoneal macrophages by infection with BCG, 2-6 X 10(7) viable organisms intravenously, followed 3-4 wk later by intraperitoneal challenge with purified protein derivative (PPD) 2 days before harvest. Macrophages obtained from infected animal without boosting showed little fibrinolytic activity, but challenge of Bacille-Calmette-...

BACKGROUND Vitamin A supplementation (VAS) at birth has been associated with decreased mortality in Asia. Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine is given at birth in tuberculosis-endemic countries. Previous studies suggest that VAS may influence the immune response to vaccines. OBJECTIVE Our objective was to examine whether VAS influences the immune response to simultaneously administered BCG ...

patients and methods in this cross-sectional study, peripheral mononuclear cells (pbmcs) were isolated from peripheral blood of 29 patients with newly diagnosed pulmonary tb and 19 patients with positive tuberculin skin test. the pbmcs were activated with ppd for 72 hours. activated cells were harvested, rna was extracted and cdna was synthesized. a real-time taqman method was designed and opti...

Lowell’ gave the incidence of allergy to streptomycin as 10 per cent. This high incidence is due to administration of the drug for long periods in tuberculosis. Most of the allergic reactions were not serious. There was no way of knowing whether a patient allergic to streptomycin could react again on re-administration. It might be assumed that he would. Houghton2 in England and Chakravarty3 in ...