Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) prolongs the secretion of progesterone from the corpus luteum, providing a critical stimulus for the sustenance of pregnancy. hCG (or individual subunits) is also secreted by a variety of trophoblastic and non-trophoblastic cancers and has been associated with poor prognosis. Early clinical studies have indicated merit in anti-hCG vaccination as potential immu...

BACKGROUND In addition to Human Leukocyte Antigens (HLA) compatibility, gene polymorphism in cytokines might be important in the quality of allogeneic immune response. OBJECTIVES In this study HLA-DR matching and a number of cytokine gene polymorphisms have been evaluated in occurrence of acute rejection after living-unrelated donor (LURD) kidney transplantation. METHODS A total of 42 renal...

Cancer immunotherapy is based on a concept that persistent presence of tumors in cancer patients is a result of immunological breakdown and/or downregulation of the tumor immunogenecity. In view of their limited efficacies, it can be argued that the problem lies not in a particular vaccine, but in tumors themselves. It is known that the rapidly dividing cells express free sulfhydryl groups on t...

BACKGROUND Lack of adequate adjuvancy is a possible explanation for lack of vaccine immunogenecity. Immunostimulatory CpGs are potent vaccine adjuvants and may be an important component of the development vaccines, particularly those for which a cellular immune response is required for protection. We have previously demonstrated that CpG ODN co-administration with hepatitis B vaccine results in...

objective: the global hiv epidemic continues to expand and exceeding previous predictions. an effective vaccine represents the best hope to curtail the hiv epidemic. dna vaccines induce humoral and cellular responses and mimic live vaccines without their pathogenic potential. the importance of cd8+ ctl responses in controlling hiv and siv viremia has led to production of a series of vaccine can...

The HIV-1 envelope protein (Env) mediates viral entry into host cells to initiate infection and is the sole target of antibody-based vaccine development. Significant efforts have been made toward the design, engineering, and expression of various soluble forms of HIV Env immunogen, yet a highly effective immunogen remains elusive. One of the key challenges in the development of an effective HIV...

BACKGROUND The T-cell mediated immune response plays a central role in the control of malaria after natural infection or vaccination. There is increasing evidence that T-cell responses are heterogeneous and that both the quality of the immune response and the balance between pro-inflammatory and regulatory T-cells determines the outcome of an infection. As Malaria parasites have been shown to i...

introduction: antifertility effects of naturally occuring antisperm antibody (asa) in infertile couples and studies on experimental immunization of various animals with sperm antigens represent asa as an immunocontraceptive target. the effects of different factors on sperm immunogenecity and asa production have been studied and different results have been reported. in this study, whole sperm im...