Transcutaneous immunization (TCI) is a new method for vaccine delivery that has been shown to induce immunity relevant to enteric disease vaccines. We evaluated the clinical safety and immunogenicity of a recombinant subunit vaccine against enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) delivered by TCI. Adult volunteers received patches containing the recombinant ETEC colonization factor CS6, either ...

Anthrax lethal toxin (LT) is a bipartite protease-containing toxin and a key virulence determinant of Bacillus anthracis. In mice, LT causes the rapid lysis of macrophages isolated from certain inbred strains, but the correlation between murine macrophage sensitivity and mouse strain susceptibility to toxin challenge is poor. In rats, LT induces a rapid death in as little as 37 minutes through ...

A set of vectors possessing the genes for aspartate semialdehyde dehydrogenase (asd) and the B subunit of the heat-labile enterotoxin of Escherichia coli (LT-B) has been developed. These vectors allow operon or gene fusions of foreign gene epitopes at the C-terminal end of LT-B. Two groups of vectors have been constructed with and without leader sequences to facilitate placing of the foreign an...

An LT-B-ST (LT-B/ST) fusion peptide was constructed by genetically joining the 5' terminus of a synthetic gene coding for the heat-stable enterotoxin (ST) of Escherichia coli to the 3' terminus of the gene coding for the binding subunit of the heat-labile enterotoxin (LT-B) of E. coli. An eight-amino-acid, proline-containing linker was included between the LT-B and ST moieties. An aroA mutant o...

The transfer of lymphocytes into severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) mice induces a series of histological changes in the spleen, including the appearance of mature follicular dendritic cells (FDCs). Studies were undertaken to clarify the role of lymphotoxin (LT) in this process. The results show that SCID mice have a small and partially differentiated white pulp containing marginal zone an...

Background and Purpose—Locomotor training (LT) using a treadmill can improve walking ability over conventional rehabilitation in individuals with hemiparesis, although the personnel requirements often necessary to provide LT may limit its application. Robotic devices that provide consistent symmetrical assistance have been developed to facilitate LT, although their effectiveness in improving lo...

PURPOSE Cholestatic liver injury is associated with a high production of free radicals. The pathogenesis of liver injury in biliary atresia (BA) patients is largely undefined. The goal of the present study was to clarify the oxidative damage and the changes in antioxidant enzyme activities that occur during the development of BA and after liver transplantation (LT). METHODS We enrolled BA pat...

Phosphopeptide analyses of the simian virus 40 (SV40) large tumor antigen (LT) in SV40-transformed rat cells, as well as in SV40 lytically infected monkey cells, showed that gel-purified LT that was not complexed to p53 (free LT) and p53-complexed LT differed substantially in their phosphorylation patterns. Most significantly, p53-complexed LT contained phosphopeptides not found in free LT. We ...

We examined the ability of blood group A-active glycoconjugates to act as receptors for Escherichia coli heat-labile type I enterotoxin (LT-I) in HT-29 cells. These cells contained ~4 times more specific binding sites for LT-I than for cholera toxin (CT). Binding of LT-I could not be blocked by the B subunit of CT (CT-B), indicating the existence of LT-I receptors in addition to the glycosphing...

NOD-like receptors (NLRs) and caspase-1 are critical components of innate immunity, yet their over-activation has been linked to a long list of microbial and inflammatory diseases, including anthrax. The Bacillus anthracis lethal toxin (LT) has been shown to activate the NLR Nalp1b and caspase-1 and to induce many symptoms of the anthrax disease in susceptible murine strains. In this study we t...