免疫学技术

Currently, there are a number of obstacles barring effective immunization of large animal species with DNA-based vaccines. Generally, large concentrations of DNA and multiple doses are required before an effective immune response is detected. To overcome these impediments we have d ...

Unlike mammalian DNA, bacterial, plasmid, and synthetic DNA containing unmethylated CpG dinucleotides in specific sequence contexts are recognized by the Toll-like receptor 9 expressed by B cells and plasmacytoid dendritic cells, and trigger the activation of the innate and adapt ...

A priority in current vaccine research is the development of multivalent vaccines that support the efficient priming of long-lasting CD8+ T-cell immunity. We developed a novel vaccination strategy that used synthetic, cationic (positively charged), and antigenic peptides compl ...

Induction of HIV-specific T-cell responses by vaccines may facilitate efficient control of HIV replication. Plasmid DNA vaccines and recombinant fowlpox virus (rFPV) vaccines are promising HIV-1 vaccine candidates, although delivering either vaccine alone may be insufficie ...

DNA vaccines have emerged as a potentially important form of vaccination in the control of infectious diseases and cancers. It is now clear that professional antigen-presenting cells (APCs), such as dendritic cells (DCs) play important roles in generating humoral and cell-mediated ant ...

In some parts of sub-Saharan Africa, it is believed that most of the deaths attributed to malaria occur in infants. For this and other logistical reasons, if a malaria vaccine is developed and licensed, it will have to be administered to neonates or young infants, when they have maternally acquired ant ...

Replicase-based vaccines were introduced to overcome some of the deficiencies of conventional DNA- and RNA-based vaccines, including poor efficiency and low stability. At ultralow doses, these alphavirus-derived vectors elicit cellular as well as humoral immune responses. Add ...

The ability of DNA vaccines to stimulate Th1 type reactions has rendered them a promising tool for immunotherapy of type I allergy. In this chapter, we describe strategies for up-to-date anti-allergic DNA-based immunization. This includes codon optimization of allergen genes, CpG-enr ...

T-lymphocytes are essential participants of adaptive immunity, essential for cellular and humoral recognition of foreign antigens. In pathogenic situations T cells may, however, also recognize self-antigens, causing detrimental autoimmune responses that ultimately le ...

The need for large quantities of purified plasmid DNA has increased as the applications of DNA vaccines continue to expand. This chapter describes a simple, scaleable procedure based on the fed-batch cultivation of various Escherichia coli clones, which can be easily implemented and scal ...

DNA vaccines hold promise for generating protective immunity against a wide variety of pathogens. Understanding the mechanism by which vaccine-encoded antigens are processed and presented to na�ve lymphocytes in the host is critical for rational design of efficacious vaccines. Th ...

Increased demand for plasmid DNA (pDNA) to be produced to tighter and more exacting specifications, even for early preclinical work, has led to many researchers and manufacturers reevaluating their production methodologies. This chapter is intended to offer realistic methods that m ...

A large-scale approach to the purification of plasmid DNA has been developed that overcomes many of the limitations of current chromatography-based processes. The process consists of a scaleable lysis using recombinant lysozyme and a rapid heating and cooling step followed by a select ...

Pathogenic effector T cells are key contributors to autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). General inhibition of T cells using, e.g., methotrexate, prednisolone, or TNF blockers, has prominent therapeutic effects frequently at the cost of severe long-term si ...

Thin-layer chromatography (TLC) is a nonquantitative technique, which has been employed in the detection of antiphospholipid (aPL) antibodies. Antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is the most frequently acquired thrombophilia, characterized by thrombosis and obstetric man ...

Induced mouse models of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) have been developed to complement the spontaneous models. This chapter describes the methods used in the pristane-induced model and the chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) model, both of which have been extensively u ...

The progression of disease in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is affected by production, accumulation, and actions of cytokines. Type I interferon (IFN), specifically IFN-α, is recognized as a central mediator of disease pathogenesis in SLE. We describe a functional as ...

Neutrophils are sentinel cells of the innate immune system with a primary role of clearing extracellular pathogens. The release of weblike structures decorated with granular proteins called neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) has recently been implicated in the pathogenesis ...

There are over 120 types of autoantibodies found in the blood of SLE patients against cellular and extracellular components in both their native and posttranslationally modified forms. In recent years, these autoantibodies have provoked interest as initiators of pathology and as bio ...

Synthetic peptides are attracting increasing attention as therapeutics. Despite their potential, however, only a few selected peptides have been able to enter in clinical trials for chronic autoimmune diseases and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in particular. Here, we descri ...