Objective Objective: Toxoplasma gondii is one of the major causes of abortion in pregnant women. Most cases of abortion occur in the acute phase of infection and early pregnancy. In this study, the seroprevalence of anti-Toxoplasma gondii IgM and IgG antibodies was investigated in women with first spontaneous abortion. Also to determine the acute and chronic infections, all IgM and IgG positive...

Although heterotypic secondary infection with dengue virus (DENV) is associated with severe disease, the majority of secondary infections are mild or asymptomatic. The mechanisms of antibody-mediated protection are poorly understood. In 2010, 108 DENV3-positive cases were enrolled in a pediatric hospital-based study in Managua, Nicaragua, with 61 primary and 47 secondary infections. We analyzed...

Natural antibodies to the tumor-associated Thomsen-Friedenreich antigen (TF) are related to tumor immunosurveillance and cancer patients' survival. Hidden IgG antibodies (HAbs) to TF, their lectin reactivity, avidity, and clinical relevance were studied. HAbs were present in cancer patients and controls. A decreased level of IgG HAbs was detected in cancer. The HAbs level positively correlated ...

Toxoplasmic lymphadenopathy (TL) is the most common clinical manifestation of acute acquired toxoplasma infection in normal individuals. The diagnosis is established by serologic methods and lymph node biopsy. Recently, tests for avidity of toxoplasma immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies have been introduced to help discriminate between recently acquired and distant infection with the parasite. We...

The property of functional avidity is recognized to be of critical importance in determining pathogen clearance. An unresolved question with regard to this property is whether distinct naive subsets exist that display inherent differences in their peptide sensitivity requirements for activation, i.e., functional avidity, or whether differences in peptide sensitivity are induced following peptid...

During the 2009-2010 H1N1 influenza pandemic, an adjuvanted monovalent vaccine containing ∼25% of the normal antigen dose and AS03 adjuvant was widely used in Canada. This vaccine was found to be well-tolerated and immunogenic in young children (D. W. Scheifele et al., Pediatr. Infect. Dis. J. 30:402-407, 2011). We report here additional analyses to further characterize the humoral response to ...

Recent-infection testing assays/algorithms (RITAs) have been developed to exploit the titer and avidity of HIV antibody evolution following seroconversion for incidence estimation. The Vitros Anti-HIV 1+2 assay (Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics) was approved by the FDA to detect HIV-1 and HIV-2 infections. We developed a less-sensitive (LS) and an avidity-modified version of this assay to detect rece...

A Toxoplasma gondii immunoglobulin G (IgG) avidity enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed that combines the accuracy of assays based on end point titers and the relative ease of assays based on optical density values. Like published procedures, the new assay's avidity index (AI) was based on differential T. gondii-specific IgG reactivity in serum-treated wells washed with urea ...

Acute Toxoplasma gondii infection in early pregnancy carries the risk of transmitting the infection to the fetus with serious sequelae. However, serological testing for IgG/IgM anti-Toxoplasma antibodies may fail to differentiate between a recent and past infection. Two hundred and twenty-four Kuwaiti women in their first trimester were screened for IgG/IgM antibodies by the Vitek Immuno Diagno...

OBJECTIVE Toxoplasma gondii infection, an intracellular parasite, is often asymptomatic or is caused by different clinical diseases without being detected. Evaluation of IgG, IgA, and IgM in order to diagnose the pending Toxoplasmosis may confront some problems. Several researches has showned that Toxo IgG avidity can be useful in the recent active Toxoplasmosis. In current study, modification ...