Inosine pranobex and zidovudine metabolism.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to V Vullo.
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Humoral and cellular immune responses to Salmonella typhi have been studied in nine children with typhoid fever. By using dot immunobinding assay, anti-O-polysaccharide chain and antilipid A antibody titers have been evaluated during the course of the disease. Anti-O-polysaccharide chain antibody titers are lower at the first week and increase up to the third week of the infection. On the other hand, antilipid A antibody levels, which are already higher at the beginning of the disease, progressively augment during the following weeks. Concerning cellular immunity to S. typhi, antibacterial activity mediated by typhoid peripheral mononuclear cells has been determined. Results show this function to be depressed in the initial phase of typhoid, increasing with the time. Together, these data bring new insight on immunity in typhoid patients.
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The antigenemia and the patterns of antibodies to core protein (p24) and envelope glycoproteins (gp41, gp120) have been investigated in 81 patients with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection followed prospectively for 24 months. HIV antigen was detectable in 23 (28.4%) patients at entry to the study (13/13 with AIDS and 10/23 with ARC) and in 33 (40.7%) at the end (25/28 with AIDS, 5/12 with ARC e 3/14 with LAS). Anti-p24 were positive in 51 (63.0%) patients at the entry (26/30 symptomless, 13/15 with LAS e 12/23 with ARC) and in 41 (50.6%) at the end of the study (23/27 symptomless, 9/14 with LAS, 7/12 with ARC e 2/28 with AIDS). All patients were positive for anti-gp41 and showed no significant changes in the antibody titers during the two years of follow-up; by contrast, anti-gp120 was undetectable in most patients (26/28) with AIDS. Clinical progression in a high proportion of patients was associated with the appearance of HIV antigen, with the decline of anti-p24 titers and with no antibody reactivity to gp120 glycoprotein.
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Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) of Salmonella typhi has been analyzed by immunoblotting with pooled sera from typhoid patients. Pooled typhoid sera have recognized all the antigenic determinants of S. typhi LPS, giving a strong reaction with the repeating units on the O-side chains as well as with the core region. Cross-reacting antigens have been observed with the LPS of S. typhimurium and S. enteritidis, while no heterologous reactions were seen with the LPS of E. coli strains.
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A time-dependent degree of immunosuppression or immunostimulation which may be correlated to pharmacokinetic variables was obtained by administering a single dose of ofloxacin, norfloxacin, pipemidic and piromidic acid to healthy volunteers. The plasma samples collected before drug administration and then at various time intervals were tested for their immunomodifying activity by employing a modified 2-way mixed lymphocyte reaction and a PMN chemotactic assay. Our results show that some of the quinolones tested--norfloxacin, pipemidic acid, piromidic acid--have an immunosuppressive activity.
40 patients with urinary tract (30 cases) or pulmonary infections (ten cases) caused by different agents were treated with ofloxacin in order to evaluate the efficacy and safety of this new quinolone derivative. Treatment was performed with a dose of 300 mg three times a day for nine to 26 days. Out of the 30 urinary tract infections, 22 were clinically and bacteriologically cured, six had a clinical improvement but the causative organism persisted, one suffered a reinfection with a different pathogen and one failed to respond. Clinical and bacteriological cure was achieved in eight of the ten pulmonary infections. The overall clinical response for the two groups of patients was 97% (cure and improvement): bacteriological cure was achieved in 75% of the patients treated. No serious side effects of ofloxacin therapy were observed in any of our patients.
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A recently developed immunoenzymatic technique, the Dot Immunobinding assay (DIB), has been applied to the rapid detection of staphylococcal enterotoxin B in filtered culture supernatants. The test has been shown to be highly sensitive and specific, easy to perform and rapid (only 4 hours). The use of nitrocellulose paper as the solid phase allows the exact standardization of the amount of antigen employed and it avoids the overnight incubation usually necessary with the conventional enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).
In some of the sera from patients with amoebiasis circulating immune complexes are present which are thought to interact with lymphoid cells, enabling them to elicit a burst of oxygen consumption in PMNs. The intensity of chemiluminescence is related to the presence of C3+ and Fc IgG+ cells in the lymphoid cell suspensions employed. The generation and release of highly reactive oxygen derivatives from PMNs impair T lymphocyte proliferative responses to the E. histolytica mitogen. The Authors suggest that one of the mechanisms by which circulating immune complexes present in the sera of patients with amoebiasis may interfere with T cell-mediated immune responses, is through their binding to the surface of the C3+, Fc IgG+ cells with subsequent stimulation of the PMN oxidative metabolism.
A Dot Immunobinding (DIB) assay has been applied to the serodiagnosis of human hydatidosis and its results have been compared with those obtained with the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The two techniques have been shown to be closely related (p greater than 0.001), highly sensitive (92.0% of positive results in 75 sera from patients with hepatic or pulmonary hydatidosis) and specific (93.5% of negative results in 31 sera from patients affected by other parasitic diseases and 100% of negative results in 30 normal controls). DIB however is more economical and takes less time (only 4 hours) than ELISA. DIB could be an useful tool in field epidemiological surveys since it is sensitive, specific, simple to perform and it does not require any expensive apparatus.
Human and sheep hydatid fluids were separated by ultrafiltration, gel chromatography and immunoabsorption into several immunogenic fractions in which both parasite antigens and host substances were present. The immunological characterization of proteic antigens was carried out by immunodiffusion and immunoelectrophoresis with rabbit and ram antisera. A line of identity was observed between a human fraction (labelled as III) and a sheep fraction (labelled as 2B). Further evidence of the presence of a parasitic antigen in fraction III was given by its reaction against an antiserum from ram directed against sheep fraction 2B. The immunological characterization of fraction III indicated a close similarity between human serum albumin and parasitic antigens.