Since its introduction in 1999, West Nile virus (WNV) infections have spread rapidly across the North American continent. Diagnosis of acute WNV infection by detection of WNV-specific immunoglobulin M (IgM) is complicated by the persistence of detectable IgM for more than 1 year in some patients. IgG antibody avidity testing was assessed as a supplemental assay in the diagnosis of current infec...

The structure recognized by regulatory T cells that enables them to discriminate self from nonself in the periphery is one of the central issues of regulatory T cell biology. A link between immunoregulation and self-nonself discrimination has emerged from experiments showing that Qa-1-restricted CD8(+) T cells selectively down-regulate target T cells activated by the intermediate avidity of the...

BACKGROUND Multiple infections with diverse enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) strains lead to broad spectrum protection against ETEC diarrhea. However, the precise mechanism of protection against ETEC infection is still unknown. Therefore, memory B cell responses and affinity maturation of antibodies to the specific ETEC antigens might be important to understand the mechanism of protection. METH...

Antigen therapy remains a promising strategy for prevention and treatment of autoimmune diseases, but translating this strategy to clinical therapy has been largely unsuccessful. We have shown that development of autoimmune diabetes in non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice involves prevalent recruitment of CD8+ T cells recognizing epitopes of islet-specific glucose-6-phosphatase catalytic subunit-relat...

RIP-Kb mice, which express H-2Kb (Kb) molecules on their pancreatic beta cells, were used to examine the requirements for induction of autoimmune diabetes caused by CD8+ T cells. Previous studies showed that when these mice were crossed to mice expressing a Kb-specific TCR transgene, those CD8+ cells expressing the highest density of the transgenic TCR (presumably the highest avidity cells) wer...

Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against human proteins are the primary protein capture reagents for basic research, diagnosis, and molecular therapeutics. The 2 most important attributes of mAbs used in all of these applications are their specificity and avidity. While specificity of a mAb raised against a human protein can be readily defined based on its binding profile on a human proteome microa...

To enhance preclinical evaluation of serological immune responses to the individual diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (DTP) components of DTP combination vaccines, a fast hexavalent bead-based method was developed. This multiplex immunoassay (MIA) can simultaneously determine levels of specific mouse serum IgG antibodies to P antigens P.69 pertactin (P.69 Prn), filamentous hemagglutinin (FHA),...

The effect of TCR signals on the differentiation of memory T cells is poorly defined. Conventional wisdom suggests that high-avidity interactions are best for the selection of vaccine Ag candidates or T cell specificities for adoptive T cell therapy to stimulate robust responses. However, in conditions of Ag persistence, high-avidity clones might exhaust and fail to form long-lived protective m...

The development of effective antitumor immune responses is normally constrained by low-avidity, tumor-specific CTLs that are unable to eradicate the tumor. Strategies to rescue antitumor activity of low-avidity melanoma-specific CTLs in vivo may improve immunotherapy efficacy. To boost the in vivo effectiveness of low-avidity CTLs, we immunized mice bearing lung melanoma metastases with artific...

An evaluation of the diagnostic value of low avidity antibodies to double stranded DNA (dsDNA) measured by the polyethylene glycol (PEG) assay was undertaken. By routine screening low avidity anti-dsDNA were detected in the serum samples of 106 hitherto unknown patients. Clinical data of these patients were collected and when only low avidity anti-dsDNA was present (n = 92) a varied disease spe...