Concomitant immunity was evaluated in vivo towards a chemically induced epidermoid carcinoma transplanted in a syngeneic situation. Radiation therapy reversed the declining phase of concomitant immunity associated with tumour progression. The rejection rate of a challenge graft amounted to 82 and 95 per cent, respectively, 2 and 8 days after 25 Gy as compared with 55 and 43 per cent in unirradi...

Conventional chemotherapeutics may induce immunogenic cancer cell death or stimulate immune effectors via so-called off-target effects. The study by Besch et al. in this issue of the JCI now demonstrates that agents designed to stimulate the innate immune system by activating intracellular pattern recognition receptors can kill cancer cells in a direct, cell-autonomous fashion (see the related ...

Mucosal surfaces have a fundamental participation in many aspects of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection pathogenesis. In Brazilian HIV-1 infected subjects, loss of weight and appetite are among the most debilitating symptoms. In this review we describe a defined mucosal immunogen that has profound but transient effects on HIV viral load, and we suggest that gut associated lymphoid...

Nanotechnology holds a great promise for a wide range of medical-intent applications (diagnostic, treatment and prophylaxis of various diseases). Their advantages are due to their size, versatility and potential for multiple simultaneous applications. However, concerns have been formulated by scientific world due to insufficient data on toxicity of nanomaterials. One area of interest is represe...

The effect of combining chemotherapy and immunostimulation, induced by a chemical, against a murine lymphoid leukemia was investigated. When tetramisole or levamisole were used following one administration of 1,3-bis(2-chloroethyl)-l-nitrosourea, a significantly higher percentage of long-term surviviors occurred in contrast to the groups of animals treated with drug or immunostimulant alone. Th...

In this paper we develop a new mathematical model of immunotherapy and cancer vaccination, focusing on the role of antigen presentation and co-stimulatory signaling pathways in cancer immunology. We investigate the effect of different cancer vaccination protocols on the well-documented phenomena of cancer dormancy and recurrence, and we provide a possible explanation of why adoptive (i.e. passi...

Disease are recognized as one of the major constraint to sustainable animal production which can cause significant economic loss especially in aquaculture. Various chemotherapeutic agents have been traditionally used in the treatment and prevention of diseases in farmed fish but they are not recommended since improper and continuous use of antibiotics may lead to potential development of antibi...

Although bacterial DNA (bDNA) containing unmethylated CpG motifs stimulates innate immune cells through Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR-9), its precise role in the pathophysiology of diseases is still equivocal. Here we examined the immunostimulatory effects of DNA extracted from periodontopathogenic bacteria. A major role in the etiology of periodontal diseases has been attributed to Actinobacillus ...

Disease are recognized as one of the major constraint to sustainable animal production which can cause significant economic loss especially in aquaculture. Various chemotherapeutic agents have been traditionally used in the treatment and prevention of diseases in farmed fish but they are not recommended since improper and continuous use of antibiotics may lead to potential development of antibi...