Immune

Disease progression of neuropsychiatric symptoms in Lyme/tick-borne diseases can be better understood by greater attention to psychoimmunology. Although there are multiple contributors that provoke and weaken the immune system, infections and persistent infections are significant causes of pathological immune reactions. Immune mediated ef-fects are a significant contributor to the pathophysiological processes and disease progression. These immune effects in-clude persistent inflammation with cytokine effects and molecular mimicry and both of these mechanisms may be present at the same time in persistent infections. Sickness syndrome associated with interferon treatment and autoimmune limbic encephalopathies are models to understand inflammatory and molecular mimicry effects upon neuropsychiatric symp-toms. Progressive inflammatory reactions have been proposed as a model to explain disease progression in depression, psychosis, dementia, epilepsy, autism and other mental illnesses and...

“Refractory” autoimmune thrombocytopenia represents a life-threatening condition, having failed to respond to a variety of therapeutic measures. We report a series of cases, all failing splenectomy and multiple therapeutic programs, including, in two patients, marrow transplant. Five of the six cases reported responded to a recombinant antibody to the lymphocyte membrane antigen CD20 (rituximab), an agent commonly employed in the treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Our experiences over a period of 4 years are documented. The results support the use of this product, rituximab, in the treatment of patients with autoimmune thrombocytopenia who have not attained a hemostatically effective platelet count following splenectomy and require a continuing therapeutic management program. Am. J. Hematol. 74:263–267, 2003. © 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

We evaluated the influence of continual estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) as presently practiced by postmenopausal women with conjugated estrogens and medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) on the growth hormone/insulin-like growth factor-1 (GH/IGF-1) axis and cellular immunity. Thirty-nine postmenopausal women were evaluated (12 on no replacement, 14 on estrogen only, and 13 on estrogen and MPA). In the women receiving only conjugated estrogens, increased GH levels and decreased IGF-1 levels were found, which replicated previous research and probably reflected estrogen inhibition of hepatic IGF-1 production with a secondary increase in GH release because of reduced feedback inhibition. In women taking both MPA and estrogen, GH was increased and the previously observed estrogen induced decrease in IGF-1 levels was inhibited. In order to determine the influence of ERT on psychosocial stress-induced GH release, math (mental stress) and speech (social stress) challenges were utilized, and they produced significant increases in heart rate in all three groups. The heart rate following stress was significantly enhanced by estrogen replacement. These stressors also led to increased GH secretion in the women taking estrogen and MPA, but not in the other two groups. Gonadal steroids and GH can influence cellular immunity. We observed that ERT in both groups was associated with significantly enhanced lymphocyte responsiveness to the T-cell mitogens phytohemaglutinin (PHA) and Conconavalin A (Con A), and basal GH levels were correlated with the PHA response in the estrogen only group. ERT did not influence natural killer (NK) cell activity. We also found significant differences in the steady-state expression of latent Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) with increased antibody titers in the women in the estrogen only group and lower antibody titers in the MPA plus estrogen group. GH levels were correlated with EBV antibody titers in the estrogen plus MPA group. This study supports the hypothesis that GH and immune modulation can be influenced by ERT in postmenopausal woman. Given the extant literature on the immune-enhancing effects of GH, these data suggest that ERT may slow the declien of GH secretion with aging, an event that has been implicated in immunosenescence.

The heat shock protein, Hsp70, has been shown to play an important role in tumour immunity. Vaccination with Hsp70-peptide complexes (Hsp70-PCs), isolated from autologous tumour cells, can induce protective immune responses. We have developed a novel method to identify synthetic mimic peptides of Hsp70-PCs and to test their ability to activate T-cells. Peptides (referred to as "recognisers") that bind to Hsp70-PCs from the human breast carcinoma cell line, MDA-MB-231, were identified by bio-panning a random peptide M13 phage display library. Synthetic recogniser peptides were subsequently used as bait in a reverse bio-panning experiment to identify potential Hsp70-PC mimic peptides. The ability of the recogniser and mimic peptides to prime human lymphocyte responses against tumour cell antigens was tested by stimulating lymphocytes with autologous peptide-loaded monocyte-derived dendritic cells (DCs). Priming and subsequent stimulation with either the recogniser or mimic p...

Peripheral blood monocytes of foals (n = 7) were isolated in the first day of life and monthly thereafter up to 3 months of life. Adult horse (n = 7) monocytes were isolated and tested once for comparison. Isolated monocytes were stimulated with IL-4 and GM-CSF (to obtain ...

Four different bacterial colonies were isolated from an old stock of an entomopathogenic nematode, Steinernema monticolum. They all showed entomopathogenicity to final instar larvae of beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua, by hemocoelic injection. However, they varied in ...