Pegloticase is a powerful but underutilized weapon in the rheumatologist's armamentarium. The drug's immunogenicity leads to neutralizing antibody formation and rapid loss of efficacy in roughly one-half of all patients, which remains an impediment to broader use. New data, however, suggest that drug survival might improve with concomitant immunosuppressive agent (s), which merits further study...

Background: Data suggest that antibody responses to malaria parasites merozoite antigens are generally short-lived and this has implications for serological studies and malaria vaccine designs. However, precise data on the kinetics of these responses is lacking.

An investigation of the immunogenicity of vaccines prepared from closely related virulent and avirulent strains of S. typhosa is reported. No evidence was obtained of any essential relationship between the virulence of the strains employed and their immunogenicity, as determined by active-immunity mouse-protection tests and by the agglutinin and mouse-protective antibody response in human beings.

A recombinant virus assay was used to characterize in detail neutralizing antibody responses directed at circulating autologous HIV in plasma. Examining serial plasma specimens in a matrix format, most patients with primary HIV infection rapidly generated significant neutralizing antibody responses to early (0-39 months) autologous viruses, whereas responses to laboratory and heterologous prima...

Forty-five GM1-binding peptides were identified using phage-displayed peptides libraries of random peptides. Most have a motif containing a hydrophobic amino acid followed by a serine (S). Based on a GM1-binding assays, two of these GM1-binding peptides (named 15 and 40) were chosen to investigate its immunostimulatory properties when chemically coupled to antigens. Mice intra-nasally (i.n.) va...

Melioidosis is a severe infectious disease caused by Burkholderia pseudomallei. It is highly resistant to antibiotic treatment, and there is currently no licensed vaccine. Burkholderia thailandensis is a close relative of Burkholderia pseudomallei but is essentially avirulent in mammals. In this report, we detail the protective efficacy of immunization with live B. thailandensis E555, a strain ...

Purified streptococcal M protein extracted by nonionic detergent was used in an RIA and a solid-phase radiocompetitive inhibition assay to determine the nature of the immune response in both human beings and hyperimmunized rabbits to this complex antiphagocytic antigen. Results indicate that a type-specific response to an M antigen with the development of opsonic antibodies is the result of ant...

Candida albicans malate dehydrogenase (Mdh1p) has been screened by previous proteome studies as a candidate for a vaccine against candidiasis. In this study, recombinant Mdh1 protein with a His-tag was produced in Escherichia coli and evaluated as an immunogenic protein against candidiasis. Mdh1p was administrated to mice by two methods subcutaneous injection and intranasal administration befor...