Disseminated Nocardia asteroides infection in an immunocompetent woman following an arm injury.

A case of disseminated infection with Nocardia asteroides in a 55-year-old immunocompetent woman after mild trauma to the arm is reported. Secondary dissemination was identified in the skin, right kidney, liver, peritoneal cavity, lungs and thigh. The patient was successfully treated with surgical drainage and a 9-week course of antibiotics including cefotaxime, amikacin, chloramphenicol, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (TMP/SMX) and doxycycline. The administration of TMP/SMX in combination with doxycycline was clinically beneficial despite in vitro resistance.

Monoclonal antibodies against hepatitis B virus surface antigen: preparation and characterization.

Hybridomas secreting HBsAg antibodies were obtained by fusing murine myeloma cell line P3-X63-Ag8 to spleen cells of BALB/c mice sensitized with HBsAg. The surface antigen used for immunization of mice was prepared by purification from pooled human plasma specimens. Resulting monoclonal antibodies were detected by the SPRIA method. Clones producing highest anti-HBs titres were used to prepare mouse ascitic fluids. Monoclonal antibodies in ascitic fluid reached a titre of 10(6) to 10(7) at a protein concentration of 1 mg per ml. Two of the prepared monoclonal antibodies, HBS-01 and HBS-02, both belonging to IgG1 subclass of immunoglobulins, were selected for further study in order to assess their potential useability in the commercial ELISA kit. The pI values for HBS-01 ranged from 6.60 to 6.85, for HBS-02 from 5.6 to 6.1. In solid phase ELISA test the use of HBS-01 antibody improved accuracy of the assay by increasing its detection sensitivity for HBsAg subtypes adw and ayw in the reference serum; this sensitivity was evidently much better than that seen with the commercially available rabbit polyclonal anti-HBsAg antibody. The monoclonal antibody HBS-01 is specific to the determinant "a", which makes it suitable for use in ELISA test aimed at HBsAg detection. The antibody HBS-02 showed a markedly better reaction with HBsAg subtype adw than subtype ayw and can thus be used with advantage for their discrimination.