免疫学技术

Quality control and quality assurance procedures are discussed for the agreed benchmark standard Freund’s complete adjuvant (FCA). In addition, the use of the incomplete adjuvant (FIA) in the preparation of antisera is discussed. A major problem is the use of a safe and suitable mineral oil in FCA ...

Recombinant proteins are increasingly being used as a novel approach for antigens in vaccines. These genetically engineered antigens are poorly immunogenic and require a delivery system and adjuvant to elicit their effect at targeted site of action. A delivery system transports the an ...

Efficient vaccines against intracellular microbes or tumors will be based on innovative adjuvants able to induce efficient activation of dendritic cells. Indeed, natural or synthetic products activating Toll-like receptors (TLR) on dendritic cells (DCs) are currently in devel ...

Activation of cells of the innate immunity such as macrophages and dendritic cells is critical to mount an adaptive immune response. Recent advances on the understanding of innate immune receptors such as the Toll-like receptors (TLR) and NOD-like receptors (NLR) and the demonstration th ...

Antibody titre is a measure of the presence and amount of antibodies specific to an antigen that are present in the blood. In particular, the titre of an antibody sample is a measure of the antibody concentration determined under a defined set of conditions, with the antibody concentration being co ...

The reasons why certain vaccine adjuvants and/or delivery systems are more or less effective at inducing immune responses or promoting the preferential induction of particular types of response are unknown. While vaccine antigen discovery has benefited from a systematic approach, ...

Adjuvants constitute a critical component in vaccine development in terms of both stimulating and directing immune responses of a suitable profile to promote protection against a diverse range of disease targets. In the past, the field of adjuvant research was mainly dominated by empiri ...

Functional antibody assays can broadly be divided into three categories: neutralisation, serum bactericidal antibody (SBA) and opsonophagocytic assays (OPA). These biological assays are generally more complex than antibody-binding counterparts. They invariably invo ...

Rabies is routinely diagnosed based on the clinical description and history of exposure in a rabies-endemic country. A negative diagnostic test for rabies virus or a related lyssavirus does not exclude the clinical diagnosis. Diagnostic tests are never optimal and are entirely depende ...

With the eradication of smallpox about 30 years ago, the identification and differentiation of other poxviruses with varying pathogenicity in humans present a challenge for diagnostic facilities. While a clinical differentiation can be demanding, electron microscopy is the fas ...

Poliovirus has been the subject of research for many virologists during the last 80 years. Research on the poliovirus biology has helped to understand the molecular basis of many biological processes, particularly RNA replication and virus–host cell interactions. Laboratory resea ...

Parvovirus B19 is a single-stranded DNA virus which causes severe disease in immunocompromised patients and foetal loss in pregnant women. It is classified as an Erythrovirus and this genus also comprises two related viral genotypes (so-called LaLi/A6 (genotype 2) and V9 (genotype 3)) whi ...

Epidemiological and functional studies have clearly demonstrated that certain types of human papillomavirus (HPV) from the genus alpha of the HPV phylogenetic tree, referred to as high-risk (HR) types, are the etiological cause of cervical cancer. Several methods for HPV detection and t ...

Measles, mumps, and rubella are infections caused by RNA viruses of the same name and are vaccine preventable. The vaccines are frequently administered in a trivalent form. Laboratory diagnostic methods can include indirect detection via antibody (IgM and IgG) detection methods and dir ...

Influenza viruses continue to be a major cause of respiratory tract infection, resulting in substantial morbidity and mortality throughout the world. Accurate and rapid differential diagnosis of influenza virus infections, particularly associated with zoonotic infectio ...

The development of sensitive and specific nucleic acid diagnostic assays for viral pathogens is essential for proper medical intervention. This chapter describes four fluorescence-based PCR assays to detect the Crimean–Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHFV), Andes (ANDV), Hantaan ( ...

Rotaviruses can be detected easily, and methods have been developed to visualise their characteristic morphology, to detect rotavirus proteins through immunological methods or the virus genome, either directly by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis or after reverse transc ...

The emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and its subsequent worldwide spread challenged the global public health community to confront a novel infectious disease. The infection is caused by a coronavirus of animal origin. In this epidemic, molecular detections of SARS ...

The human adenovirus (hAdV) group is represented by 52 serotypes that have been reported to cause a broad range of clinical manifestations including respiratory tract infections, acute conjunctivitis, cystitis, gastroenteritis, and systemic infections. Conventional metho ...

Alphaviruses remain important emerging mosquito-borne, zoonotic pathogens that cause both localized human outbreaks and epizootics (e.g., Venezuelan equine encephalitis) and large human epidemics (e.g., Chikungunya). Alphaviruses are globally dispersed, and each conti ...