To determine if deoxycytidyl-deoxyguanosine oligonucleotides (CpG ODN) can be used effectively as nonspecific inducers of innate immune defenses for preventative or therapeutic interventions in infectious disease models for nonhuman primates, the present study evaluated the response of rhesus monkey peripheral blood mononuclear cells to three different synthetic CpG ODN classes by defining the ...

The composition of commensal bacteria plays a critical role in controlling immune responses the intestine. Studies have shown that specific bacterial strains may capacity to enhance host defense against gastrointestinal viral infections. While norovirus is known be most common cause gastroenteritis, leading an estimated 200,000 deaths every year, identification with protective effects infection...

INTRODUCTION Stage III melanoma, also referred to as regional metastatic melanoma, has five-year survival rates ranging between 40% and 78%. In order to reduce the likelihood of recurrence in this high-risk population, patients undergo resection of primary tumors and all involved nodal basins. Systemic therapy is being pursued in an effort to improve outcome data, but the best strategy has yet ...

A significant proportion of patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection who undergo antiviral therapy have persistent or recurrent viremia and fail to achieve a sustained virologic response (SVR). Factors associated with treatment failure include HCV genotype 1 infection, high serum HCV RNA levels, and advanced fibrosis. Consensus interferon (CIFN) is a synthetic type I interferon d...

The main therapeutic options currently available to induce remission in newly diagnosed cases of multiple myeloma include: i) melphalan at conventional doses without concurrent administration of interferon; ii) melphalan at conventional dose combined with interferon; iii) autologous bone marrow transplantation (ABMT). We conducted an analysis of the survival data reported in five large-scale pu...

In addition to silencing specific genes, small interfering RNA (siRNA) transfection is also associated with the non-specific induction of inflammatory cytokines and type I interferon. Those so-called "off-target" effects have considerable implications for the interpretation of in vitro studies and clinical application of siRNA. The present study attempted to develop a better understanding of th...

BACKGROUND Ribavirin increases early and sustained virological response rates in patients chronically infected with HCV who receive pegylated interferon-α and novel HCV protease inhibitors. METHODS To better characterize antiviral efficacies of these upcoming therapies, Huh7 cells harbouring a subgenomic HCV replicon system were cultivated with various doses and combinations of ribavirin, int...

Two lysosomotrophic drugs, neutral red and chloroquine, enhance polyinosinic:polycytidylic acid-induced interferon production by a strain of diploid human fibroblasts (FS-4). Treatment of cells with neutral red or chloroquine between 2.5 and 3.5 h after induction increases interferon yields 16- to 64- and 4- to 16-fold, respectively, in the subsequent 20.5 h. The two drugs inhibit the rates of ...

Low-dose long-term interferon-a is a standard therapy for hepatitis C and is often associated with neuropsychiatric side effects, most frequently depression, mild cognitive impairment and fatigue which disappear with cessation of such treatment. Psychotic disorders are a rare complication of the treatment and usually resolve with its termination. In this paper, a review of the literature on int...