Hartley strain guinea pigs were sensitized with 0.5 ml of concentrated cell-free Actinomyces viscosus culture supernatant fluids mixed with Freund complete adjuvant. Fourteen to 16 days later the animals were challenged by intradermal injection with 0.1 ml of the culture supernatant, and the reactions were observed at 4, 8, 16, 24, and 48 h. Peritoneal exudate cells from sensitized animals were...

BACKGROUND Malaria, an Anopheles-borne parasitic disease, remains a major global health problem causing illness and death that disproportionately affects developing countries. Despite the incidence of malaria, which remains one of the most severe infections of human populations, there is no licensed vaccine against this life-threatening disease. In this context, we decided to explore the expres...

Burrowing, an ethologically relevant rodent behaviour, has been proposed as a novel outcome measure to assess the global impact of pain in rats. In a prospective multicentre study using male rats (Wistar, Sprague-Dawley), replication of suppressed burrowing behaviour in the complete Freund adjuvant (CFA)-induced model of inflammatory pain (unilateral, 1 mg/mL in 100 µL) was evaluated in 11 stud...

This study investigated the effect of CD20-positive B-cell depletion on central nervous system (CNS) white and gray matter pathology in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis in common marmosets, a relevant preclinical model of multiple sclerosis. Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis was induced in 14 marmosets by immunization with recombinant human myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein i...

AIMS Supernatants of serum-free cultured mononuclear cells (MNC) contain a mix of immunomodulating factors (secretome), which have been shown to attenuate detrimental inflammatory responses following myocardial ischaemia. Inflammatory dilated cardiomyopathy (iDCM) is a common cause of heart failure in young patients. Experimental autoimmune myocarditis (EAM) is a CD4+ T cell-dependent model, wh...

A model of cryptococcosis was developed using intraperitoneal infections of guinea pigs. This model shared characteristics with cryptococcosis in humans and was used to study the effects of immunosuppression and immunostimulation on cryptococcosis. Female guniea pigs survived longer than males; perphaps this was related to a greater capacity of their monocytes to kill cryptococci. A brief cours...

BACKGROUND The roots and stem bark of Berberis orthobotrys (Berberidaceae) have long been used traditionally to treat joint pain. Though, it has not been pharmacologically assessed for rheumatoid arthritis. The current study explores anti-arthritic activity and phytochemical analysis of aqueous-methanolic extract (30:70) and fractions (ethyl acetate, n-butanol, and aqueous) of Berberis orthobot...

The ability of peritoneal rabbit macrophages from immunized and nonimmunized animals to phagocytose Giardia lamblia trophozoites in the presence of serum was studied and compared in an in vitro system. The rabbits which served as the source of immune serum and macrophages were injected repeatedly at multiple sites (intramuscularly, subcutaneously, and intradermally) with a mixture of G. lamblia...

Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR or HER1) is considered a tumor associated antigen. HER1 is overexpressed in many human epithelial tumors and involved in crucial cellular functions for tumor development. For this reason HER1 is considered a good target for cancer immunotherapy and some passive agents are being evaluated in clinical trials. However, HER1-based active immunotherapy has not ...

It is well established that the majority of headache and other trigeminal nerve-associated disorders have higher prevalence in females than in males. However, the pathogenesis of many chronic trigeminal pain conditions, such as trigeminal neuralgia, migraine and temporo-mandibular disorders, is still not known. One of the proposed mechanisms involve calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), which...