Ricin is a plant toxin that is a CDC level B biothreat. Our recombinant ricin A chain vaccine (RiVax), which contains mutations in both known toxic sites, has no residual toxicity at doses at least 800 times the immunogenic dose. RiVax without adjuvant given intramuscularly (i.m.) protected mice against intraperitoneally administered ricin. Furthermore the vaccine without alum was safe and immu...

Neisseria meningitidis type B is a major world-health problem. The Meningococcus type B capsular polysaccharide (MnB) is very poorly immunogenic and no vaccine to the antigen exists. Here, we conjugated the MnB to a T-cell carrier peptide (p458) derived from the self-60kDa heat shock protein molecule. The conjugate vaccine was effective in inducing long-lasting IgG antibodies to the MnB antigen...

The present report describes the use of ELISA with cDNA expression libraries in the identification of immunogenic proteins. The methodology described was applied using libraries constructed with mRNA isolated from Tityus serrulatus and Tityus bahiensis venom glands. In addition we describe for the first time the sequence of a neurotoxin from Tityus bahiensis venom gland named TbTx5 whose amino ...

Evidence is growing for a role of Waddlia chondrophila as an agent of adverse pregnancy outcomes in both humans and ruminants. This emerging pathogen, member of the order Chlamydiales, is also implicated in bronchiolitis and lower respiratory tract infections. Until now, the serological diagnosis of W. chondrophila infection has mainly relied on manually intensive tests including micro-immunofl...

Inclusion Body Hepatitis (IBH) caused by adenovirus is a reemerging diseaseof mainly young broiler chicks of 3-5 weeks age. The polypeptide pattern of a local isolate of virus causing Inclusion Body Hepatitis was analyzed by sodium dodecyl slulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. A total of 9 polypeptides ranging in molecular weight between 35.2 and 110.0 kDa were observed. Western blot an...

The reactogenicity and immunogenicity of combined measles and rubella (MR) booster vaccination, via aerosol and subcutaneous routes, was assessed in 562 healthy children. Rates of rubella seroconversion and geometric mean titers (GMT) were similar for both routes. Rates of measles PN seroconversion, GMT and measles ELISA post-vaccination seropositivity and seroconversion rate were each higher f...

The immune system fights cancer and sometimes temporarily eliminates it or reaches an equilibrium stage of tumor growth. However, continuous immunological pressure also selects poorly immunogenic tumor variants that eventually escape the immune control system. Here, we focus on metastatic melanoma, a highly immunogenic tumor, and on anti-melanoma immunotherapies, which recently, especially foll...

This study showed that the antigenicity of a malarial epitope increased with the length of the epitope when inserted at positions aa26 (amino acid position 26) and aa196, but not at aa213, of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa major outer membrane protein OprF (326 amino acids). Immunization studies showed that a 19-aa epitope was significantly more immunogenic than a 7-aa epitope when inserted at aa26...

An attractive, yet hitherto unproven concept predicts that the promotion of tumor regression should elicit the host's immune response against residual tumor cells to achieve an optimal therapeutic effect. In a way, chemo- or radiotherapy must trigger "danger signals" emitted from immunogenic cell death and hence elicit "danger associated molecular patterns" to stimulate powerful anticancer immu...