The surface protective antigen (Spa) protein of Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae has been shown to be highly immunogenic and is a potential candidate for a new vaccine against erysipelas. In this study, we cloned and sequenced spa genes from all E. rhusiopathiae serovar reference strains as well as from a serovar 18 strain which was not classified as any species in the genus Erysipelothrix. Sequenc...

Inflammatory bowel disease is frequently associated with spondylarthritis (SpA). It has been discussed that α4/β7 expressing lymphocytes are involved in the aetiology of SpA. We report a case of a successful combination therapy of vedolizumab (VDZ) and etanercept (ETA) in a patient with ulcerative colitis with pouchitis and SpA. In our case VDZ was effective for pouchitis and ineffective for Sp...

In a recent international workshop for ankylosing spondylitis (AS), a consensus was reached that the term ‘spondyloarthritis’ is preferable to ‘spondyloarthropathy’, to emphasize the inflammatory nature of these diseases [1]. The term is often quoted in the plural form, ‘the spondyloarthritides’, accentuating that this is a group of similar diseases with distinct clinical features and a common ...

Ankylosing spondylitis is the prototype of inflammatory rheumatic diseases grouped under the term spondyloarthritis or spondyloarthropathy (SpA). New classification criteria for SpA have now been proposed; the patients are subgrouped into (1) a predominantly axial disease, termed axial SpA, which includes AS, and (2) peripheral SpA. There is an unacceptable delay in the diagnosis of axial SpA, ...

OBJECTIVE This study was performed to assess our clinical experience with single-port access (SPA) laparoscopic cystectomy and myomectomy and the surgical outcomes of those procedures at our institution. METHODS The authors evaluated the surgical outcomes of SPA laparoscopic cystectomy in 293 patients and SPA laparoscopic myomectomy in 246 patients. The surgical outcomes comprised operation t...

Staphylococcal protein A (SpA) and streptococcal protein G (SpG) affinity chromatography are the gold standards for purifying monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) in therapeutic applications. However, camelid VHH single-domain Abs (sdAbs or VHHs) are not bound by SpG and only sporadically bound by SpA. Currently, VHHs require affinity tag-based purification, which limits their therapeutic potential and...

Thirty-six methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bloodstream isolates from renal patients were genetically characterized by DNA microarray analysis and spa typing. The isolates were highly clonal, belonging mainly to ST22-MRSA-IV. The immune evasion and enterotoxin gene clusters were found in 29/36 (80%) and 33/36 (92%) isolates, respectively.

Interaction of staphylococcal protein A (SPA) with human serum depressed the ability of such serum to neutralize herpes simpled virus (HSV)-antibody labialis. SPA-induced depression of serum-dependent virus neutralization appeared to be due to consumption of complement by SPA. In addition, SPA attached to antibody-treated, HSV-infected cells and inhibited complement mediated immune cytolysis. T...

Physical appearance has a great importance on how people are viewed in their social environment. Many researchers in sport and exercise psychology have, therefore, applied a self-presentational approach to the study of sport and exercise behaviour (Hausenblas, Bewer & van Raalte, 2004). Since the seminal work of Hart, Leary and Rejeski (1992), researchers have examined the relationship between ...

Recently more and more evidence suggest that rare variants with much lower minor allele frequencies play significant roles in disease etiology. Advances in next-generation sequencing technologies will lead to many more rare variants association studies. Several statistical methods have been proposed to assess the effect of rare variants by aggregating information from multiple loci across a gen...