BACKGROUND The need for tetanus toxoid decennial booster doses has been questioned by some experts. Several counter arguments have been presented, supporting the maintenance of decennial adult booster doses with tetanus and diphtheria toxoids (adult formulation of the vaccine: Td). This study aimed to evaluate the use of Td in Portuguese adult women under routine conditions. For that purpose we...

When pooled immunoglobulin G (IgG) from patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) was used to probe a human fetal spinal cord λgt 11 cDNA library, the IgG was found to bind to a predicted epitope of human mitochondrial ND4 sequence. To investigate the involvement of the ND4 as an autoantigen in MS, we determined the presence of specific antibody in the serum of MS patients and serum samples of...

  The immunogenicity of ten different formulations of intranasal diphtheria and tetanus vaccines which containing different absorption enhancers, adjuvants and other excipients were determined in guinea pigs by the serum neutralization (SN) method. From these ten formulations, it was selected four formulations which gave significant immunogenicity in guinea pigs. In order to design the "final f...

The reduction of brain amyloid beta (Aβ) peptides by anti-Aβ antibodies is one of the possible therapies for Alzheimer's disease. We previously reported that the Aβ peptide vaccine including the T-cell epitope of diphtheria-tetanus combined toxoid (DT) induced anti-Aβ antibodies, and the prior immunization with conventional DT vaccine enhanced the immunogenicity of the peptide. Cynomolgus monke...

BACKGROUND CpG oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs), resembling bacterial DNA, are currently tested in clinical trials as vaccine adjuvants. They have the nuclease-resistant phosphorothioate bond; the immune responses elicited differ according to the CpG ODN sequence and vaccination method. To develop a CpG ODN that can induce plasmacytoid dendritic cell (pDC)-mediated T(H)1 immunity through the mucosa...