Standard serological tests (both EIA and Immunoblotting) have reached high levels of sensitivity and reproducibility, but do not indicate whether infection is recent or longstanding. Since many patients with HIV-1 infection are not usually diagnosed until symptom presentation, the possibility to distinguish between acute and chronic infection has become increasingly important for the purposes o...

The avidity of the T-cell receptor (TCR) for antigenic peptides presented by the peptide-MHC (pMHC) on cells is a key parameter for cell-mediated immunity. Yet a fundamental feature of most tumor antigen-specific CD8(+) T cells is that this avidity is low. In this study, we addressed the need to identify and select tumor-specific CD8(+) T cells of highest avidity, which are of the greatest inte...

BACKGROUND Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) represents one of the leading causes of congenital infections worldwide. Early diagnosis of fetal infection and consequent rapid therapeutic intervention with immunoglobulin treatment may prevent fetal transmission and virus-related sequelae. In this study, the cell-mediated immunity and immunoglobulin avidity were evaluated as potential predictors of cong...

Background: We analyzed both early and late (persistent) phases of each cytomegalovirus (CMV) antibody in mothers with primary CMV infection during pregnancy subsequent congenital for a long period from to after delivery using our stored serum samples. Methods: used samples obtained immunoglobulin (Ig) G seroconversion infant infection. antibodies, including IgG titer, IgM avidity, were assesse...

The adoptive transfer of lymphocytes expressing high-avidity T-cell receptors with antitumor specificity provides a promising therapy for cancer patients. Recently, we compared 12 HLA-A2-restricted, tyrosinase peptide-specific CD8(+) cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) clones and demonstrated that polyfunctional type 1 helper (Th1)-cytokine secretion serves to rapidly select high-quality, high-avidity...

Targeted Protein Deliveries In article number 2204620, Hak-Sung Kim and co-workers develop a new type of protein self-assembly using human clathrin for targeted delivery. A redesigned triskelion is dual-functionalized with functional biomolecules. The resulting assembly exhibits significantly high avidity an efficient delivery cargo into tumor cells.

An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay-based immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody avidity test was evaluated by using sera from 57 patients with acute dengue infection. Overall, 55 of 57 patients were correctly classified (27 of 27 with primary dengue and 28 of 30 with secondary dengue). We conclude that the IgG avidity test can be useful for differentiating between acute, primary, and secondary dengu...

BACKGROUND Assays have been developed for cross-sectional HIV incidence estimation using plasma samples. Large scale surveillance programs are planned using dried blood spot (DBS) specimens for incidence assessment. However, limited information exists on the performance of HIV cross-sectional incidence assays using DBS. METHODS The assays evaluated were: Maxim HIV-1 Limiting Antigen Avidity E...

BACKGROUND We previously showed that vaccination with one dose of PR1 and WT1 peptides induces transient anti-leukemia immunity. We hypothesized that maintenance of a sustained anti-leukemia response may require frequent boost injections. DESIGN AND METHODS Eight patients with myeloid malignancies were enrolled in this phase II study, and 6 completed 6 injections of PR1 and WT1 peptides in Mo...