Immunology studies prior

Goodman, J.W., Nitecki, D.E. (1967). Studies on the relation of a prior immune response to immunogenicity. Immunology 13, 577-83. 

A detailed structural study should provide invaluable information concerning the nature of the biologically active groupings of these polysaccharides prior to 1945 no such structural investigations had been carried out. It is probable that the many polysaccharide fractions isolated are constituent parts of one or more main polysaccharide complexes, which have fundamental roles in the immunological behavior of M, tuberculosis. An immense field of work is open to carbohydrate chemists. 

In a study of compassionate use of intravenous cidofovir in AIDS patients with CMV retinitis, iritis developed in 21 of 51 individuals (7). The appearance of this inflammatory process did not fit the characteristics of the vitritis associated with immune reconstitution, or with HIV-induced vitritis. The high rate in this cohort (compared with a 5-7% incidence in randomized trials) was associated with severe CMV retinitis, and the authors suggested that breakdown of the blood-ocular barrier in these patients may promote higher intraocular concentrations of cidofovir and thus enhance local toxicity. Previous correlations of prior use of HIV protease inhibitors with iritis were not confirmed in this study, although patients with iritis had better immunological and virological status than those without the disease. 

Other biological assays have been developed that avoid the sacrifice of animals. The mouse neuroblastoma assay measures PSTs by the survival of cultured neuroblastoma cells after addition of extract. In this assay, Na /K -ATPase inhibitor ouabain and the sodium channel activator verattidine are added to neuroblastoma cells prior to the addition of toxin extract. PSTs that are present in the extract prevent the veratridine-induced influx of sodium ions into the cells, and thus prevent cell death. A commercially available kit version of this assay, the MIST shippable cell bioassay kit [184], showed good agreement in a comparative study to the mouse bioassay [185] however, it performed unsatisfactorily in an AOAC international collaborative study in 1999, and there have been quality problems related to the shipping of the kit. The MIST kit was eventually replaced by the MIST Alert kit, which is an immunological assay that utilizes antibodies to STX, neoSTX, GTXl-4 [186]. Various other immunoassays exist [187]. 

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