BACKGROUND One of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality in children with sickle cell disease (SCD) is infection with the pneumococcal bacterium (Streptococcus pneumoniae). Unfortunately, the polysaccharide-conjugate vaccine appears to be less effective in individuals with SCD when compared to the general population. We sought to better understand the relative efficacy of pneumococca...

INTRODUCTION The aim of present study is to inverstigate the association between antibody levels after vaccination with 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) and subsequent serious pneumococcal infections in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and spondylarthropathy (SpA) patients. METHODS A cohort of 497 patients (RA=248 and SpA=249) received a single dose of PCV7. At vaccination, patients we...

Children with frequent recurrent episodes of otitis media may have a deficient IgG2 antibody response to polysaccharide antigens. Five otitis-prone children were vaccinated with heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine. While all had an IgG1 antibody response to all pneumococcal serotypes included in the conjugate vaccine, the IgG2 response, especially to serotypes 6B, 9V, 19F, and 23F, was p...

Pneumococcal neuraminidase, NanA, is a pneumococcal vaccine candidate. Prior culture-confirmed pneumococcal contacts were shown to induce serum anti-NanA antibodies during the first 2 years of life. The antibody concentrations at neither 12 nor 18 months were significantly associated with the risk of subsequent pneumococcal carriage or acute otitis media.

OBJECTIVES To analyse the effects of ranitidine treatment on vaccination induced antibody responses in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL). METHODS Fifty CLL patients were vaccinated with tetanus conjugated Hib vaccine and a 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine with (n = 25) or without (n = 25) ranitidine treatment in a matched case--control setting. Anti tetanus toxoid...

Background Patients with recurrent respiratory tract infections and an impaired response to pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccination are diagnosed with a specific antibody deficiency. In adult patients with pneumococcal pneumonia an impaired antibody response to the infecting pneumococcal serotype can sometimes be found. It is unknown whether these patients are unable to produce an adequate anti...

Expression of the phosphorylcholine (PC) epitope was examined in 48 viridans streptococcal strains, including Streptococcus pneumoniae R36a as the positive control, and their immunogenicity to induce an S. pneumoniae-cross-reactive response was evaluated in mice. Thirteen strains were found to express the PC epitope, while no obvious association was found between the taxonomic categories and PC...

BACKGROUND Asthma is an independent risk factor for invasive pneumococcal disease; however, the immune response of adult asthma patients to pneumococcal vaccination is unknown. We explore the serologic response of patients with moderate to severe asthma to the 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPSV23). METHODS Seventeen moderate to severe adult asthma patients that had not been v...

Streptococcus pneumoniae has been shown to bind to erythrocytes via a process called immune adherence. This adherence and the subsequent transfer of pneumococci from erythrocytes to macrophages are both dependent on complement C3 deposition onto the pneumococcal surface. The observation that anti-capsule antibody increases C3 deposition on the pneumococcal capsule indicated that anti-capsule an...

Treatments aimed at inhibition of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) in patients with sepsis have been unsuccessful. Up to 50% of such patients suffer from pneumonia. To determine the effect that treatment with anti-TNF has on pneumococcal pneumonia, mice were intranasally inoculated with Streptococcus pneumoniae and, 25 h later, treated with 1 of the following: (1) control antibody, (2) anti-TNF, (3)...