Seroprotection against tetanus in patients attending an emergency department in Belgium and evaluation of a bedside immunotest.

Background: In most emergency departments, tetanus prophylaxis currently relies on vaccination history. Bedside evaluation of tetanus immunity may improve this process.

Objectives: (i) To determine the seroprevalence of tetanus immunity; (ii) to evaluate the accuracy of vaccination history in assessing tetanus immunity; (iii) to identify factors predictive of seroprotection and incorrect history.

Anaphylactic shock caused by immunoglobulin E sensitization after retreatment with the chimeric anti-interleukin-2 receptor monoclonal antibody basiliximab.

Background: Repeated administration of chimeric or humanized monoclonal antibodies is generally well tolerated. Anti-idiotypic sensitization is rare and is considered to be of no clinical significance. We observed a child who experienced anaphylactic shock when he received a second course of basiliximab at the time of his second renal transplantation.

Immunologic and virologic response after tetanus toxoid booster among HIV-1- and HIV-2-infected Senegalese individuals.

Twelve HIV-1-infected, nine HIV-2-infected patients and eight HIV-negative subjects were given a 40IU booster dose of tetanus toxoid (TT). Blood was collected on days 0, 7 and 30 after immunization. Changes in HIV-1 or HIV-2 RNA load were evaluated by nested PCR.

IFN-beta interferes with the differentiation of dendritic cells from peripheral blood mononuclear cells: selective inhibition of CD40-dependent interleukin-12 secretion.

We studied the effects of interferon-beta (IFN-beta) on the differentiation of dendritic cells (DC) obtained by culturing plastic-adherent peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from a total of 30 healthy volunteers in the presence of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and interleukin-4 (IL-4). First, we found that the addition of IFN-beta at the initiation of the culture did not modify DC morphology but caused a reproducible and statistically significant upregulation of HLA-DR, CD86, and CD80 surface expression. CD1a expression was significantly reduced, and CD40 expression was unchanged.

Interferon-beta inhibits Th1 responses at the dendritic cell level. Relevance to multiple sclerosis.

Clinical studies have demonstrated beneficial effects of interferon-beta (IFN-beta) therapy in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. However, the mechanism of action of IFN-beta in MS remains unknown. IFN-beta has even been demonstrated to enhance isolated T cell secretion of IFN-gamma, a cytokine proven to be deleterious in MS.