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Biomedical subjects

J Suni

Publications and source records attributed to J Suni.

86 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

Identification of antigenic components of Toxoplasma gondii by an immunoblotting technique.

Proteins of Toxoplasma gondii were separated by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis with subsequent transfer to a nitrocellulose sheet by electrophoretic blotting. Immunologically reactive polypeptides were detected by human sera with previously known toxoplasma antibody levels. Heavy chain-specific, peroxidase-conjugated anti-human immunoglobulins were used as the indicator antibodies for the separate identification of IgG and IgM reactive polypeptides. IgG toxoplasma antibodies reacted with several antigens of Mr approximately 27 000-67 000, while toxoplasma-specific IgM seemed to detect only a few polypeptides. The Mr of 35 000 for the dominating IgM reactive polypeptide was observed.

Antibodies↗

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome. The first cases in Finland.

We report here on the first two patients with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) in Finland. The first patient, a 37-year-old man, had Kaposi's sarcoma and the other, a 26-year-old man, had pneumonia due to Pneumocystis carinii. Both patients were homosexuals and showed a marked defect in cell-mediated immunity consistent with the definition of AIDS. Both patients were found in a screening survey of homosexual men in Helsinki.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗

Retrovirus p30-related antigen in human syncytiotrophoblasts and IgG antibodies in cord-blood sera.

Sensitive immunological techniques were used to detect retrovirus markers in human pregnancy. A total of 1,540 human cord-blood sera were tested for retrovirus-reactive IgG antibodies using solid-phase enzyme immunoassay and purified RD 114 virus as antigen. Of these, 118 (7.7%) sera were positive. Blocking assays with specific animal anti-p30 sera, use of control antigen, and electrophoretic protein experiments combined with immunological detection indicated that the human antibodies reacted specifically with the p30 protein. The occurrence of antibodies in cord-blood serum had a highly significant correlation to complications during pregnancy and also correlated to the number of previous abortions and stillbirths. When goat anti-RD 114 p30 serum was used in the peroxidase-anti-peroxidase tissue staining procedure, p30-related antigen was detected in sections of all placental specimens (early and term pregnancies, blighted ova, hydatidiform moles, destructive moles and choriocarcinomas). However, in each case only syncytiotrophoblastic cells were positive. These findings, supplemented with different types of blocking tests, lead us to conclude that retrovirus p30-related antigen is selectively expressed in the highly differentiated syncytiotrophoblasts, which in the normal placenta are directly exposed to maternal blood. It is suggested that retrovirus-reactive antibodies may represent an autoimmune-like immune response to the p30-related syncytiotrophoblast antigen escaping during cellular damage.

Antibodies, Viral↗

Clinical trial of a subunit influenza vaccine.

A double-blind field trial was performed comparing a subunit influenza vaccine (A/Victoria/75 and B/Hongkong/73) with placebo. A good protection against influenza was induced by the vaccine. On the basis of serological determinations (enzyme immunoassay, EIA) the incidences of influenza A and B infections were reduced within a period from 3 weeks up to 5 months after the vaccination by 88 and 68%, respectively. Three weeks after the vaccination 79% of the vaccines had acquired protective serum antibody levels (greater than or equal to 32 x 10(2) by EIA) against influenza A and 62% against influenza B, while in the control subjects protective antibody levels were measured in frequencies from 4 to 13% in subsequent serum samples. With a few exceptions antibody levels were still present in 5-month samples. Side effects were recorded within the first 3 days following the vaccination. Some minor symptoms like redness and tenderness at the vaccination site and muscle ache were reported more frequently by the vaccines than by the controls, but no more harmful systemic reactions.

Adult↗

Rheumatoid factor in acute viral infections: interference with determination of IgM, IgG, and IgA antibodies in an enzyme immunoassay.

IgM rheumatoid factor (RF), an autoantibody to the Fc fragment of IgG, was determined by solid-phase enzyme immunoassay (EIA). RF levels were significantly higher in patients with rubella virus infection than in patients with infections due to influenza virus, cytomegalovirus, respiratory syncytial virus, parainfluenza virus, adenovirus, mumps virus, or herpes simplex virus. To evaluate the role of RF in EIA determinations of viral antibodies, IgM RF from IgM-IgG cryoglobulin or control IgM was added to patient sera before assay for viral antibodies. IgM RF inhibited virus-specific IgG and IgA reactions and gave nonspecific IgM reactions in EIA for antibodies to rubella and influenza viruses, but had little or no effect on antibodies to cytomegalovirus. The minimal effective amounts of RF were 100-500 ng/ml for inhibition of IgG, 300-1,000 ng/ml for IgA, and 25-500 ng/ml for IgM. The control IgM preparation gave no such effects. These studies reinforce the need to eliminate RF interference in solid-phase EIA.

Acute Disease↗

Rubella antibody determination from heparinised finger-tip blood by single radial haemolysis and enzyme immunoassay.

Rubella antibodies were determined by single radial haemolysis (SRH) and a micromodification of enzyme immunoassay (EIA) of samples of heparinised finger-tip blood or plasma collected into transportable vials, and the results were compared with antibody titres obtained from conventional samples of venous serum. The antibody titres of finger-tip specimens gave a high correlation with those of venous serum. For SRH only 5 microliters of heat-inactivated finger-tip plasma was needed, and for EIA only a single dilution, 1:100, in duplicate, of heparinised finger-tip plasma or while blood was sufficient. The minimal inconvenience in sample collection makes the finger-tip test particularly suitable for large-scale immunity screening when assessing the need for, or efficacy of, rubella vaccination.

Antibodies, Viral↗

Genital Chlamydia trachomatis infections in patients with cervical atypia.

Of 177 gynecologic outpatients with cervical dysplasia studied, 29 (16%) were found to excrete Chlamydia trachomatis from their urogenital tract. Sera collected from 93 of these patients were significantly more often positive for and showed higher levels of antichlamydial micro-complement fixation (CF) and immunofluorescence (IF) antibodies than sera obtained from the controls. However, when the sera were tested for anti-herpesvirus type II (HSV-II) and cytomegalovirus (CMV) antibodies, no difference between the cases and the controls were encountered.

Adolescent↗

Localization of the major group-specific protein (p27) of avian tumor viruses by immunofluorescence in chicken cells and tissues.

An immunofluorescence technique was developed for the major group-specific (gs) p27 antigen of avian type C viruses. The localization of this antigen virus-infected in chick embryo fibroblasts was perinuclear, intracytoplasmic and at the cell surface in the majority of the cells, while it was at the cell surface only in some of the cells. No antigen was found in the nucleus. When chickens were experimentally infected with RAV-1 or a wild-strain avian leukosis virus (of subgroup A), the viral gs antigen was detected in lymphocytes of bursa of Fabricius and the spleen. Distinct specific staining was seen in the medulla of germinal centers in bursas of Fabricius and in the white pulp of the spleen where B lymphocytes are thought to be located. This is consistent with the possibility that B lymphocytes are the target cells in the infection of chickens with avian leukemia viruses.

Alpharetrovirus↗

Protection of man from natural infection with influenza A2 Hong Kong virus by amantadine: a controlled field trial.

Prophylactic administration of amantadine in doses of 100 mg. twice a day offered statistically significant protection against influenza A2 infection in a double-blind field trial involving 391 medical student volunteers during the influenza A2 Hong Kong epidemic in Helsinki in the winter of 1969. Serologically verified influenza, as measured by complement fixation and/or haemagglutination inhibition, occurred in 27 out of 192 students in the amantadine group against 57 out of 199 in the placebo group, giving a protection rate of 52%.

Adult↗

Monoclonal antibody defining a human syncytiotrophoblastic polypeptide immunologically related to mammalian retrovirus structural protein p30.

Antigenic material previously detected in human placental trophoblastic cells by immunoperoxidase staining using a goat antiserum against the feline RD114 retrovirus structural protein p30 was isolated by immunochromatography from normal syncytiotrophoblast. The antigen was used to immunize mice, and of the monoclonal antibodies produced by murine hybridomas an IgG1 was selected which reacted in enzyme immunoassay with the syncytiotrophoblast antigen and with purified RD114. This antibody, designated HPS-1, stained normal and neoplastic syncytiotrophoblasts in a manner similar to that of the goat antibodies, detected in immunoblotting a Mr = 130 000 polypeptide in cultured human choriocarcinoma cells and reacted in spot immunoblotting tests with purified preparations of mammalian retroviruses but not with an avian retrovirus. The polypeptide antigen may represent activation of human endogenous retroviral genes in syncytiotrophoblast.

Antibodies, Monoclonal↗