The papillomavirus major late protein, L1, forms the pentameric assembly unit of the viral shell. Recombinant HPV16 L1 pentamers assemble in vitro into capsid-like structures, and truncation of ten N-terminal residues leads to a homogeneous preparation of 12-pentamer, icosahedral particles. X-ray crystallographic analysis of these particles at 3.5 A resolution shows that L1 closely resembles VP...

  In 1974, the World Health Organization (WHO) established the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) to ensure that all children have access to routinely recommended vaccines. Since then, global coverage with the four core vaccines (Bacille calmette guérin vaccine [for protection against tuberculosis], Diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine [DTP], Polio vaccine, and Measles vaccine) has increase...

Copies of Rubella Screening reports for QARANC and WRAC personnel recruited between 1976 and 1980 were analysed. With the exception of WRAC servicewomen, insufficient numbers were screened to be statistically significant until 1980 when 93.1 % were successfully screened. 108 seronegative cases in 1980 were identified and a postal questionnaire was used to evaluate the efficiency of follow up im...

Rational design of peptide vaccines becomes important for the treatment of some diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related disorders. In this study, as part of a larger effort to explore correlations of structure and activity, we attempt to characterize the doubly phosphorylated chimeric peptide vaccine targeting a hyperphosphorylated epitope of the Tau protein. The 28-mer linear chi...

Intravenous inoculation ofBCG was found to be both prophylactic and therapeutic in BALB/c mice against challenge with amastigotes of Leishmania donovani. Spleens and livers of mice inoculated with BCG maintained total parasite burdens at significantly lower levels when compared to controls. BCG administered intravenously 14 days prior to and on the same day of protozoan challenge was more prote...

cervical cancer is, globally known to be, one of the most common cancers among women especially indeveloping countries. more than 90% of cervical cancers are associated with high-risk humanpapillomaviruses (hpvs) particularly hpv types 16 and 18. two major strategies have been developed forprevention and treatment of cervical cancer and other hpv-associated malignancies; the first one is based ...

Due to the high incidence of breast cancer and associated mortality rate,the development of an effective vaccine may be beneficial for the prevention or adjuvant treatment of this malignancy. We have constructed a novel breast cancer vaccine, Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG)-hIL2MUC1, that consists of BCG and expresses a truncated form of MUC1 and human interleukin (IL)-2. In vitro analysis of th...

BACKGROUND Invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) results in high morbidity and mortality globally each year, although it is a vaccine-preventable disease. This study aimed to characterize the clinical features of IPD in a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) in Taiwan. The seven-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) was introduced in the private sector in October 2005. The estimated covera...

BACKGROUND The sexual stages of Plasmodium falciparum are responsible for the spread of the parasite in malaria endemic areas. The cysteine-rich Pfs48/45 protein, exposed on the surface of sexual stages, is one of the most advanced antigens for inclusion into a vaccine that will block transmission. However, clinical Pfs48/45 sub-unit vaccine development has been hampered by the inability to pro...

Post-marketing drug surveillance for adverse drug events (ADEs) has typically relied on spontaneous reporting. Recently, regulatory agencies have turned their attention to more preemptive approaches that use existing data for surveillance. We conducted an environmental scan to identify active surveillance systems worldwide that use existing data for the detection of ADEs. We extracted data abou...