Current Issue : April - June Volume : 2016 Issue Number : 2 Articles : 6 Articles
Immunodiagnostics is the use of immunoassays for diagnostic purposes. The immunoassay utilizes the highly specific antigen-antibody interaction as the basis of the detection. The term diagnosis usually implies disease diagnosis; however, advances in the field of immunoassays have made them extensively applicable to a variety of fields other than the clinical. Immunodiagnostics are now mainstays in fields like drug testing, assessment of environmental pollutants, food safety testing, forensic medicine, external quality assurance and proficiency testing. The popularity of immunodiagnostic approach stems from their relative simplicity, accuracy, test turn-around time and portability; thus combining sensitivity, specificity and ease of use. The immunoassays have been the method of choice for detection of relatively small concentration of analytes in complex biological fluids/other analytical samples for the last five decades. The scientists world over are trying to develop new generations of immunoassays that focuses on reducing the assay turnover time and reducing the steps and instrumental requirements for result interpretation....
Context: Since the discovery of toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3), no specific tools have been developed\nto modulate its activity in upper respiratory tract viral infections (URTIs). Contafluââ??¢ (antibodies\nto TLR3 cytoplasmic fragment) is the first specific TLR3 modulator that showed efficacy in a mouse\nmodel of influenza. Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of Contaflu in URTI. Methods: A doubleblind\nrandomized placebo-controlled trial in adults with self-reported URTI (the ESTUAR trial)\nwas conducted in 2012/2013 in Belgium. Adult outpatients started a 7-day treatment course with\noral tablets of Contaflu or placebo within 36 h after onset of at least one of 4 typical symptoms of\nURTI. Patients were examined twice by their general practitioners, on days 2-3 and 10-14 after\nstart of treatment. The primary endpoint was the overall severity of URTI calculated as the sum of\nWisconsin Upper Respiratory Symptom Survey (WURSS-21) scores over the follow-up. Independent\nStudentââ?¬â?¢s t test was used to compare the disease severity between groups. Results: A total of\n243 patients were enrolled by 32 investigators (121 Contaflu, 122 placebo); 92% of cases matched\nICD codes J00 or J06. Most patients had very mild (41.8%) or mild (18.2%) URTI symptoms. In the\nITT cohort, neither primary nor secondary outcome measures (duration of URTI, day-to-day and\noverall functional impairments) showed statistically significant differences between groups. The\nrate of adverse events was similar in both groups. In patients with moderate to severe URTI\nsymptoms, Contaflu tended to reduce the overall disease severity, daily symptoms, and to improve\nthe functional state. Due to the small size of the corresponding subgroups, Contaflu efficacy on\ndaily scores was statistically significant (p < 0.05) only 1, 2, and 5 days after start of treatment.\nConclusion: Contaflu was ineffective in mild URTI and showed efficacy in moderate to severe URTI\ncases....
Background: Despite effective antiretroviral therapy (ART), HIV-infected patients exhibit systemic inflammation, early\nonset of age-related diseases, and features of immunosenescence. The role of inflammation in the development of\nage-related diseases is widely recognized. However, the role of immunosenescence is not well established. Studying\nimmunosenescence in HIV-infection could give insight into its role in ageing processes. In this cross-sectional study,\nwe aimed to investigate whether ART-treated HIV-infected patients exhibit immunosenescence; and whether\nimmunosenescence is associated with age-related processes of inflammation, metabolism, adipose tissue, and\nmuscle. T cell immunosenescence and exhaustion were assessed by flow cytometry analysis of CD8+ cells from 43\nART-treated HIV-infected patients (HIV+) and ten Controls using markers of differentiation: CD27/CD28; maturation:\nCD27/CD45RA; senescence: killer cell lectin-like receptor G1 (KLRG1); and exhaustion: programmed death-1 (PD-1).\nRelationships between CD8+ T cell immunosenescence, exhaustion, and age-related processes were assessed using\nlinear regressions.\nResults: HIV-infection was strongly associated with more highly differentiated and mature CD8+ T cell\nphenotypes. PD-1 and KLRG1 expression did not differ between HIV+ and Controls, but depended on\ndifferentiation and maturation stages of the cells. CD8+ T cell maturation was associated with age. KLRG1\nexpression was associated with age, metabolic syndrome, visceral adipose tissue, and high muscle mass.\nPD-1 expression was not associated with age-related parameters.\nConclusions: HIV-infection strongly affected CD8+ T cell differentiation and maturation, whereas age-related\nprocesses were only weakly associated with immune parameters. Our findings suggest that, in contrast to\ninflammation, immunosenescence appears to be highly dependent on HIV-infection and is only to a small\nextent associated with age-related parameters in well-treated HIV-infection....
Background: Trachoma, a preventable blinding eye disease, is initiated by ocular infection with Chlamydia trachomatis\n(Ct). We previously showed that microRNAs (miR) -147b and miR-1285 were up-regulated in inflammatory\ntrachomatous scarring. During the initial stage of disease, follicular trachoma with current Ct infection, the\ndifferential expression of miR has not yet been investigated.\nMethods: Conjunctival samples were collected from 163 children aged 1ââ?¬â??9 years old living in a trachoma-endemic\nregion of Guinea Bissau, West Africa. Small RNA sequencing (RNAseq) was carried out on samples from five children\nwith follicular trachoma and current Ct infection and five children with healthy conjunctivae and no Ct infection.\nSmall RNAseq was also carried out on human epithelial cell lines infected with ocular Ct strains A2497 and\nisogenic plasmid-free A2497 in vitro. Results were validated by quantitative PCR (qPCR) in 163 clinical samples.\nResults: Differential expression of RNAseq data identified 12 miR with changes in relative expression during\nfollicular trachoma, of which 9 were confirmed as differentially expressed by qPCR (miR-155, miR-150, miR-142,\nmiR-181b, miR-181a, miR-342, miR-132, miR-4728 and miR-184). MiR-155 and miR-184 expression had a direct\nrelationship with the degree of clinical inflammation. MiR-155 was up-regulated (OR = 2.533 ((95 % CI = 1.291ââ?¬â??4.971);\nP = 0.0069) and miR-184 was down-regulated (OR = 0.416 ((95 % CI = 0.300ââ?¬â??0.578); P = 1.61*10âË?â??7) as the severity\nof clinical inflammation increased. Differential miR expression was not detected in HEp-2 or HCjE epithelial\ncells 48 h post infection with Ct in vitro. HCjE cells, a conjunctival epithelial cell line, had a markedly different\nmiR background expression compared to HEp-2 cells.\nConclusions: In follicular trachoma, expression of miR-155 and miR-184 is correlated with the severity of\ninflammation. This likely reflects host regulation of the immune response and a prolonged period of wound\nhealing following the clearance of Ct. Prolonged healing may be associated with subsequent development of\nscarring trachoma....
Several highly prevalent human diseases are associated with immunopathology. Alterations in the immune system are found in\nsuch life-threatening disorders as cancer and atherosclerosis. Monocyte activation followed by macrophage polarization is an\nimportant step in normal immune response to pathogens and other relevant stimuli. Depending on the nature of the activation\nsignal,macrophages can acquire pro- or anti-inflammatory phenotypes that are characterized by the expression of distinct patterns\nof secreted cytokines and surface antigens. This process is disturbed in immunopathologies resulting in abnormal monocyte\nactivation and/or bias ofmacrophage polarization towards one or the other phenotype. Such alterations could be used as important\ndiagnostic markers and also as possible targets for the development of immunomodulating therapy. Recently developed cellular\ntests are designed to analyze the phenotype and activity of living cells circulating in patient�s bloodstream. Monocyte/macrophage\nactivation test is a successful example of cellular test relevant for atherosclerosis and oncopathology. This test demonstrated changes\nin macrophage activation in subclinical atherosclerosis and breast cancer and could also be used for screening a panel of natural\nagents with immunomodulatory activity. Further development of cellular tests will allow broadening the scope of their clinical\nimplication. Such tests may become useful tools for drug research and therapy optimization....
Bacterial vaginosis (BV), the most common genital infection in reproductive-aged women, is associated with increased risk\nof sexually transmitted infections. Its etiology remains unclear, especially the role of Gardnerella (G.) vaginalis, an anaerobic\nbacterium characteristic of the BV-alteration of the vaginal ecosystem. In the genital mucosa, dendritic cells (DCs) sense bacteria\nof the microenvironment via receptors and then orchestrate the immune response by induction of different T cell subtypes. We\ninvestigated the interactions between G. vaginalis and humanmonocyte-derivedDCs using a wide range of bacterial concentrations\n(multiplicity of infection from0.01 to 100), and the effects of this pathogen on PHA-induced lymphocyte proliferation. As observed\nby electron microscopy and cytometry, G. vaginalis reduced the internalization ability of DCs by forming extracellular clusters and\ninduced neither DC maturation, nor DC secretion of cytokines, except at the highest dose with a very early DC maturation state.\nThe same profile was observed on lymphocytes with significant increases of proliferation and cytokine secretion only at the highest\nbacterial concentration. Our findings indicate that G. vaginalis possesses slight immune-stimulating activities against DCs and T\ncells, reflecting thus a defective inflammatory response and giving rise to the atypical, non- or low-grade, inflammatory clinical\ndisease profile....
Loading....