rendered background IgE levels only. In accordance, sera of OVA mice which permitted mast cell degranulation upon OVA trigger in a specific b-hexosaminidase release assay, whereas sera of OVA-AAVLP mice did not contain anaphylactogenic antibodies. In an in vivo anaphylaxis experiment, upon intravenous OVA challenge OVA-immunized mice presented significant drop of body temperature, whereas AAVLP...

BACKGROUND Previously, we demonstrated that OVA-loaded macrophages (OVA-Mphi) partially suppress OVA-induced airway manifestations of asthma in BALB/c mice. In vitro studies showed that OVA-Mphi start to produce IL-10 upon interaction with allergen-specific T cells, which might mediate their immunosuppressive effects. Herein, we examined whether IL-10 is essential for the immunosuppressive effe...

Food or water-borne enteric pathogens invade their hosts via intestinal mucosal surfaces, thus developing effective oral vaccines would greatly reduce the burden of infectious diseases. The nature of the antigen, as well as the mode of its internalization in the intestinal mucosa affects the ensuing immune response. We show that model protein antigen ovalbumin (Ova) given per-orally (p.o.) indu...

Immunotherapy has gained special attention due to its specific effects on tumor cells and systemic action to block metastasis. We recently demonstrated that ovalbumin (OVA) conjugated to the surface of nanoparticles (NPs) (OVA‑NPs) can manipulate humoral immune responses. In the present study, we aimed to ascertain whether vaccination with OVA-NPs entrapping IL-7 (OVA-NPs-IL-7) are able to indu...

Subunit vaccines are generally safer, but often less effective than live attenuated vaccines as they lack the necessary co-stimulatory factors. The formulation of an adjuvant like N-trimethyl chitosan (TMC) with an antigen can overcome its poor immunogenicity. Recent data suggest the importance of incorporating the antigen and the adjuvant into one entity for maximum immunostimulatory effect, e...

In contrast to infectious (live) vaccines are those based on subunit Ag that are notoriously poor in eliciting protective CD8 T cell responses, presumably because subunit Ags become insufficiently cross-presented by dendritic cells (DCs) and because the latter need to be activated to acquire competence for cross-priming. In this study, we show that CpG-Ag complexes overcome these limitations. O...

Ovalbumin (OVA)-sensitized wildtype (WT) and endotoxin-resistant (ER) mice developed similar degrees of airways eosinophilia and serum OVA-specific IgE levels after acute aerosolized OVA challenge. WT mice demonstrated methacholine hyperreactivity, whereas ER mice showed no change in responsiveness. With chronic aerosolized OVA challenge, both WT and ER mice developed local tolerance, with reso...

AIM Covalent conjugates consisting of diverse antigens coupled to optimal numbers of monomethoxypolyethylene glycol (mPEG) molecules have been shown to suppress antigen specific antibody formation. In this study, the possibility was examined that the same conjugates might prevent experimental immune mediated blepharoconjunctivitis (EC, formerly EAC) which had been shown to be caused by CD4(+) T...

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether photocatalytic TiO(2) nanoparticles have adjuvant effect, when administered in combination with ovalbumin (OVA) in mice. Mice were immunized via intraperitoneal injections of OVA, OVA + TiO(2) or OVA + Al(OH)(3) and challenged with aerosols of OVA. At the end of the study, serum was analysed for content of OVA-specific IgE, IgG1 and IgG2a ant...

Asthma is a disease characterized by spontaneous contraction of the airways in response to a wide variety of endogenous and exogenous stimuli. Many asthma models are used to mimic the human asthma model in the literature. In order to better understand the role of the cannabinoid (CB) 2 receptor in the ovalbumin (OVA)-induced asthma model, a combination of both selective CB2 agonist (AM1241) and...