Modulation of proinflammatory responses to Pneumocystis carinii f. sp. muris in neonatal mice by granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor and IL-4: role of APCs.

Passive immunization of neonatal mice against Pneumocystis carinii f. sp. muris enhances control of infection without stimulating inflammation.

Pneumocystis carinii is an opportunistic fungal pathogen that causes life-threatening pneumonia in immunocompromised individuals. Infants appear to be particularly susceptible to infection with Pneumocystis. We have previously shown that there is a significant delay in clearance of the organisms from the lungs of neonatal mice compared to adults. Since alveolar macrophages are the effector cell...

Impaired innate and adaptive immunity to Streptococcus pneumoniae and its effect on colonization in an infant mouse model.

Streptococcus pneumoniae colonization and invasive disease peak around the third and first birthdays, respectively, and decline thereafter. While these declines are attributable in part to immunity acquired via natural exposure, maturation of innate immune responses may also be involved. A mucosally administered candidate whole-cell pneumococcal vaccine (WCV) containing killed pneumococcal anti...

Expression of a Chimeric Protein Containing the Catalytic Domain of Shiga-Like Toxin and Human Granulocyte Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor (hGM-CSF) in Escherichia coli and Its Recognition by Reciprocal Antibodies

Fusion of two genes at DNA level produces a single protein, known as a chimeric protein. Immunotoxins are chimeric proteins composed of specific cell targeting and cell killing moieties. Bacterial or plant toxins are commonly used as the killing moieties of the chimeric immunotoxins. In this investigation, the catalytic domain of Shiga-like toxin (A1) was fused to human granulocyte macrophage ...

Comparison of T7- and Lac-Based Systems for the Periplasmic Expression of Human Granulocyte Macrophage Colony Stimulating Factor in Escherichia coli

Expression and Secretion of Human Granulocyte Macrophage-Colony Stimulating Factor Using Escherichia coli Enterotoxin I Signal Sequence

With the aim of the secretion of human granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor (hGM-CSF) in Escherichia coli, hGM-CSF cDNA was fused in-frame next to the signal sequence of ST toxin (ST-I) of exteroxigenic E. coli, containing 53 or 19 amino acids of signal peptide. The fused STsig::hGM-CSF coding fragments were inserted into a T7-based expression plasmid. The recombinant plasmids were ...