1,721,056 research outputs found
Vaccines (United Kingdom Patent application)
No full textFIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to vaccines comprising Tat, biologically active derivatives thereof or precursors therefor, including nucleic acids encoding such, as well as to methods for vaccination comprising the use of such vaccines
Lymphocytes treated with natural alpha interferon produce a chemotactic factor for human neutrophils
No full textlymphocytes stimulated with alpha interferon released achemotactic factor for neutrophils. The process was not inhibited by cicloheximide, whereas mepacrine completely inhibited rellease of chemotacttic activity. Interferon did not stimulate lymphocytes to release a neutrophil chemotactic factor
Triggering of neutrophil cytotoxicity against an antibody-coated tumour target by TPA
No full textThe human erythroid myeloid leukaemia cell line K562 was used as target for human neutrophil cytotoxicity. Neutrophils demonstrated cytotoxicity against K562 only in the presence of a second stimulus, tetradecanoyl phorbol acetate (TPA), a result consistent with previous observations. We now demonstrate that antibody-coated K562 (using OKT9 and 345 monoclonal antibodies) are similarly only sensitive to neutrophils when TPA is added. The presence of both antibody and TPA in the cytotoxic assay resulted in significantly higher levels of cytotoxicity than in the absence of antibody; the result being consistent with a synergistic action between protein kinase C activation and Fc receptor perturbation in the neutrophil. The cytotoxicity against non-coated and antibody-coated targets was markedly inhibited, particularly against the former, by the protein kinase C inhibitor, 1-(5-isoquinoline-sulfonyl)-2-methyl piperazine (H-7). There were marked differences in the extracellular calcium dependency of the two types of cytotoxicity reactions. TPA-activated respiratory burst was unaffected by the presence of non-coated and OKT9-coated targets, whereas TPA-induced lysosomal enzyme release was significantly increased by non-coated targets and a further increase occurred in the presence of OKT9-coated K562
Recent advances in the development of HIV-1 Tat-based vaccines
No full textOver the last two decades most of the efforts in HIV vaccine development have been based on the use of the HIV Env with the goal to induce sterilizing immunity. However, as a result of Env variability disappointing results have been obtained in preclinical and phase III clinical trials. Although the objective of a preventive immunity still remains a priority, secondary endpoints (e.g. block of virus replication and disease onset) are being considered at the present as more achievable end-points in HIV vaccine development. This is based on accumulating evidence indicating that low viral load correlates with maintenance of immune functions and slow progression to disease, and that cell-mediated immunity plays a major protective role in the absence of sterilizing immunity. The promising results obtained in non-human primates with a vaccine based on a native Tat protein (B-clade), which is an early regulatory protein key for HIV replication and AIDS pathogenesis, highlights the importance of targeting the virus very early after infection. In particular, the immune response against Tat appears to modify the virus-host interactions at the very beginning of infection, thus containing the depletion of critical immune cells and the progression of infection. Moreover, since Tat targets and induces maturation of dendritic cells, has immunomodulatory activities and drives Th-1 and CTL responses, immunization with Tat may drive or increase these immune responses also against other HIV antigens to support an effective, long-lasting and hopefully even sterilizing antiviral immunity. Finally, Tat B-clade is similarly recognized by sera from individuals infected by different virus clades (A, B, C, D) supporting the concept of a cross-clade vaccine. Therefore, the Tat-vaccine should contain virus replication protecting from disease progression (non-sterilizing immunity) or even favoring an abortive infection. Although only a phase III clinical trial will establish the efficacy of this vaccine strategy, the Tat-vaccine has recently entered preventive and therapeutic phase I clinical testing in Italy to establish safety (primary-end-point) and immunogenicity (secondary end-point) and phase II studies are being prepared
ACTIVATION OF NEUTROPHIL CYTOTOXICITY BY SYNERGISTIC ACTION OF TPA AND TARGET IMMUNIZATION
No full textABSTRACTS OF THE SEVENTH MEETING OF THE ITALIAN ASSOCIATION FOR CELL BIOLOGY AND DIFEFRENTIATION, 16-19 OCTOBER, SPOLETO, ITAL
Cytotoxic T lymphocyte epitope analogues containing cis- or trans-4-aminocyclohexanecarboxylic acid residues
No full textIn order to improve the immunotherapeutical potential of H-Cys-Leu-Gly-Gly-Leu-Leu-Thr-Met-Val-OH (CLG) peptide, an Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) subdominant epitope derived from the membrane protein LMP2, we have synthesized and tested CLG analogues containing cis- and/or trans-4-aminocyclohexanecarboxylic acid (ACCA) replacing Gly-Gly and/or Thr-Met dipeptide units. All pseudopeptides were tested for metabolic stability and for their capacity to bind HLA-A2 molecules and to sensitize target cells to lysis. All new compounds exhibited higher enzymatic resistance compared to the original CLG and some trans-ACCA-derivatives were able to associate HLA-A2 and to efficiently stimulate CTL responses directed against the CLG natural epitope
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
IMMUNE INTERFERON STIMULATES HUMAN NEUTROPHIL FUNCTION
No full textABSTRACTS OF 22ND MEETING OF THE EUROPEAN SOCIETY FOR CLINICAL INVESTIGATION,
GRAZ (AUSTRIA) APRIL 20th-23rd 198
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