ABSTRACT
Serogroup B meningococcus (MenB) is a leading cause of meningitis and sepsis across the world and vaccination is the most effective way to protect against this disease. 4CMenB is a multi-component vaccine against MenB, which is now licensed for use in subjects >2 months of age in several countries. In this study, we describe the development and use of an ad hoc protein microarray to study the immune response induced by the three major 4CMenB antigenic components (fHbp, NHBA and NadA) in individual sera from vaccinated infants, adolescents and adults. The resulting 4CMenB protein antigen fingerprinting allowed the identification of specific human antibody repertoire correlating with the bactericidal response elicited in each subject. This work represents an example of epitope mapping of the immune response induced by a multicomponent vaccine in different age groups with the identification of protective signatures. It shows the high flexibility of this microarray based methodology in terms of high-throughput information and minimal volume of biological samples needed.
Subject(s)
Antibodies, Bacterial/immunology , Antigens, Bacterial/immunology , Meningococcal Infections/immunology , Meningococcal Vaccines/immunology , Neisseria meningitidis, Serogroup B/immunology , Adolescent , Adult , Antibodies, Bacterial/blood , Child , Child, Preschool , Epitope Mapping , Humans , Infant , Meningococcal Infections/prevention & control , Peptide Library , Protein Array Analysis , Serum Bactericidal Antibody Assay , Young AdultABSTRACT
Allele frequencies for 26 short tandem repeats (STRs) were obtained from a sample of 203 unrelated individuals living in the area of Florence, Prato and Pistoia (Tuscany, Central Italy). These 26 loci are in addition to the existing 13 U.S. core loci and can help provide assistance in complex kinship testing when, for example, the alleged father is not available for testing. The results were compared with U.S. Caucasian, African American and Hispanic populations.
Subject(s)
Gene Frequency , Genetics, Population , Microsatellite Repeats , DNA Fingerprinting , Humans , Italy , Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction , Racial Groups/genetics , United StatesABSTRACT
A case of acute intestinal obstruction due to a granuloma caused by Schistosoma haematobium in the appendix is presented. The patient came from a pure S. haematobium area and only S. haematobium eggs were identified. The granuloma turned the appendix into a cingulum that caused an intestinal strangulation.
