The pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine is recommended as a means of preventing invasive disease in the elderly. We compared responses to the 23-valent polysaccharide vaccine in 46 previously unvaccinated, healthy, institutionalized elderly persons (mean age, 85.5 years) with those in 12 healthy younger adults (mean age, 37 years) by measuring prevaccination and postvaccination serum IgG antibo...

Background: Erythropoietin (EPO) was first known as a factor for red blood cell proliferation and differentiation. New studies show the effects of EPO on immune system. Objective: In this study, the effects of pretreatment with recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO) on the anti-human leukocyte antibody (anti-HLA) titer were determined. Methods: Three groups of rats were sensitized with human...

polysaccharide pneumococcal vaccine adults in more developed countries: the state of the evidence. Lancet Infect Dis 2003;3:71–8. 8 Alfageme I, Vazquez R, Reyes N, et al. Clinical efficacy of anti-pneumococcal vaccination in patients with COPD. Thorax 2006;61:189–95. 9 Lexau CA, Lynfield R, Danila R, et al. Changing epidemiology of invasive pneumococcal disease among older adults in the era of ...

background : antivenom is still widely used in the treatment of envenomation as there are no vaccines or other effective agents available against animal venoms. recently, neurotoxins named birtoxin family have been described from parabuthus transvaalicus and androctonus crassicauda. the aim of the present study was to test the antibirtoxin antibodies for their ability to neutralize the lethal e...

the study was undertaken to answer the question that how many patients with pigmentation of back and arms actually have amyloid deposits in pathology. 44 patients presenting with diffuse pigmentation of back and arms (dpoba) were selected. skin biopsies were performed in all cases from the affected sites. on all formalin fixed and paraffin embedded specimens, the following histochemical stains ...

Monoclonal antibodies against pneumococcal surface protein A (PspA) have been shown to protect mice from fatal pneumococcal infection. PspA is highly variable serologically, raising the possibility that PspA from one strain might not be able to elicit protective responses against strains which possess serologically different PspA. We have prepared a Agtll library of pneumococcal genomic DNA and...

Background Maternal vaccination against group B Streptococcus (GBS) might provide protection against invasive GBS disease in infants. We investigated the kinetics of transplacentally transferred GBS serotype-specific capsular antibodies in the infants and their immune response to diphtheria toxoid and pneumococcal vaccination. Methods This phase 1b/2, observer-blind, single-center study (NCT0...

pneumococcal autolysins are enzymes involved in cell wall turnover and cellular division physiologically. they have been found to be involved in the pneumococcus pathogenesis. the aim of this study was to identify the autolytic activity of spr1754 as a novel protein of streptococcus pneumoniae . moreover, the binding of the recombinant protein to plasma proteins was also determined. the spr1754...

This report describes a case of relapsing pneumococcal peritonitis. The postulated source of infection was vaginal colonization and secondary adherence of pneumococci to an intrauterine contraceptive device. After immunization with a conjugate pneumococcal vaccine, her antibody levels were observed. She remained infection free at the 2-year follow-up investigation.