Bollettino dell'Istituto sieroterapico milanese最新文献

In order to verify if the method for the titration of salivary secretory IgA (s-IgA) by the technical of radial immunodiffusion is trustworthy, have been carried out the precision tests in the series and among the series in two saliva samples with very different s-IgA concentrations, and precision and accuracy tests in the series and among the series using a solution with a known titre of IgA. The results of the first battery tests have shown a precision ranging from 93.04 to 95.43%. The results of the tests of the second battery have shown a precision ranging about 96% and an accuracy about 97%. The tested method is, therefore, sufficiently trustworthy.

Increased susceptibility to bacterial recurrent infection is characteristically associated with impaired B cells function but also with a defective PMN function. We studied PMN CT in 15 HIV positive drug addicts patients with persistent generalized lymphoadenopathy (PGL), in 15 symptom free HIV negative drug addicts (SFDA) and in 15 healthy blood donors to evaluate influence of HIV infection on PMN functions. CT of patients with PGL was reduced to 78% (p < 0.0001) and 75% (p < 0.00001) of CT in SFDA patients and healthy blood donors, respectively. We conclude that HIV infection causes defective PMNL CT and then it can increase susceptibility to bacterial recurrent infections in these patients.

In 1986 Grayston and coworkers termed TWAR (or Taiwan Acute Respiratory) a new strain of Chlamydia which has still not received an exact taxonomic classification. In fact, whereas initially the TWAR strain was classified as C. psittaci because of its oval-shaped, glycogen free, dense inclusions, recent studies on the immunological analysis, DNA analysis and ultrastructural morphology, would seem to indicate that TWAR is a new Chlamydial species, whose proposed name as C. pneumonia. TWAR is mainly responsible for respiratory syndrome varying in gravity from a slight form to pneumonia, and is liable to give rise to epidemic forms; in addition, more recently, certain Authors have postulated its involvement in the pathogenesis of ischemic cardiopathy.

The present study was set up to evaluate the efficacy of hyperimmune anti-CMV immunoglobulins (IVIG) in the prophylaxis of CMV infection in five patients suffering from dilatative myocardiopathy and submitted to hearth transplant. Different commercial IVIG were tested for anti-CMV neutralizing antibodies before administrated them to patients; the lots immunochemically prepared by PEG resulted to have the highest anti-CMV titer. IVIG treatment, when administered at high doses and at closes intervals of time, proved able to prevent and control CMV infections; when treatment was stopped, a primary infection occurred, easily controlled by short courses of DHPG. Even if our survey was limited to only five cases, it should be emphasized that after the suspension of the therapy, clinical symptoms were restricted to simple mononucleosis syndrome without organ disease. Furthermore it should be noted that during IVIG therapy no immediate or delayed adverse effects were observed.

A Dot-ELISA is described that lends itself to the screening of large series of sera in relation to tetanus antibodies. A threshold of 0.06 I.U. per ml has been chosen as representing the protective tetanus antibody level. Two hundred and fifty-four sera were assayed by conventional ELISA, passive hemagglutination test and Dot-ELISA. The results obtained using concurrently these 3 techniques were in agreement with one another and permitted us to ascribe the same sera as tested by the various techniques to the same group of sera containing a non protective antitetanus antibody level and to the same group of sera-containing a protective level. It is suggested that Dot-ELISA should be used for the assessment of the tetanus immune status of populations.

In this work we investigated the effects of malnutrition on the immune response in neoplastic patients. We studied the basal NK activity of 34 neoplastic malnourished patients and 10 neoplastic not malnourished patients and a control group of blood donors, by a standard 51 Cr release assay against K562 cells. We observed that the neoplastic malnourished patients have a defective NK activity in spite of a normal number of NK cells, as ascertained by HNK-1 monoclonal antibodies. The reduced NK activity of the neoplastic malnourished patients is only partially restored by rIFN alpha 2a but is normalized by rIL-2 stimulation. We also found that the endogenous IL-2 production from some of these patients is slightly reduced as compared to controls. On the contrary, there are no significative differences between the neoplastic not malnourished patients and blood donors, as concerns the NK activity. These results suggest that nutritional status plays a very important role in the maintenance of an efficient immune response in neoplastic patients.

The activity "in vitro" of six antibiotics (co-trimoxazole, cephaloridine, nitrofurantoin, carbenicillin, nalidixic acid, gentamicin) was tested against four Gram negative: E. coli, Pseudomonas sp., Klebsiella sp. and Enterobacter sp. isolated from urine samples from 1971 to 1987, at the Istituto di Igiene of Trieste. The temporal analysis of antibiograms revealed an decrease of the incidence of resistance in the year 1979, 1980 and 1981. In the following years the percentage of resistance showed an increasing of incidence.

It has been suggested that the antiviral activity shown by chelating agents towards different viruses is probably related to the action on viral nucleic acid polymerases which require metal ions as essential cofactors. Desferrioxamine B, a metabolite from Streptomyces pilosus which chelates ions (Fe3+, Al3+, Cu2+, Zn2+, Co2+) from intracellular and external compartments, has been tested for its activity on the multiplication of VSV and rabies virus in CER cells. While desferrioxamine B was ineffective on rabies virus multiplication, it was shown to reduce plaque formation, cytopathic effect and viral yield by VSV at both low and high multiplicity of infection. The activity of the drug was not due to a direct action on virions outside the cells, but was probably related to an alteration in the delicate balance of intracellular ions which could in turn be critical for VSV multiplication.

During a 12 month open clinical trial, 14 patients (6 with AIDS, 2 with ARC and 6 with PGL) were continuously administered a daily 1200 mg dose of Zidovudine. Clinical course was correlated with a number of serological (HIV p24 antigen, p17 and p24 antibodies) and immunological (CD4 cell counts, serum neopterin and beta 2-microglobulin levels) parameters. All patients survived until the end of the trial: none developed major opportunistic infections, but 5 required an average of 7 blood transfusions each. Disappearance of p24 Ag was observed in 4 out of 7 patients, although with a subsequent reappearance in 3; moreover, changes of p24 Ag and HIV core Ab profiles were generally paralleled by neopterin and, to a lesser extent, by CD4/neopterin ratio variations. In the long run, significant differences between baseline and end-point results were shown by neopterin, but not by CD4 cell counts and beta 2-microglobulin levels. Efficacy of Zidovudine therapy seemed to be mainly related to clinical, but even more so, to immunological and serological status at baseline; in fact, severe clinical deterioration was observed in 2 patients who had an already low CD4/neopterin ratio from the beginning, coupled with a p24 Ag positivity and a negativity of both anti-p17 and -p24. Conversely, a stable clinical condition was observed in those patients in whom the reverse was true.

Hemodialysis patients were screened and monitored for HBV markers and at renal unit (identification EDTA 13ND) Palermo. Eighty-five patients received the hepatitis B vaccine (Haevac B Pasteur); fifty-three were followed up for more than three years; they received one of the three following schedules: 5 micrograms at 0, 1, 2 and 14 months; 5 micrograms at 0, 1, 2, 3, and 14 or 10 micrograms at 0, 1, 2, and 14 months. The best result was obtained by third schedule with a sero-conversion to anti-HBs of 83% at one month after the booster doses; and with the same percentage of anti-HBs positivity two years after the booster dose. During the study time (January 1984, March 1989) no new HBV events in patients and in the hemodialysis staff, who was also on monitoring, were observed.