Current progress in enteropathogenic and enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli vaccines.

Enteropathogenic and enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli are important causal agents of infectious diarrhea, particularly amongst pediatric populations. While enteropathogenic E. coli is a significant health threat in developing countries, enterohemorrhagic E.

Expression of QK/QR/RRRAA or DERAA motifs at the third hypervariable region of HLA-DRB1 and disease severity in rheumatoid arthritis.

Objective: To examine the relationship between disease severity in patients with confirmed rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and the carriage of alleles expressing the high risk epitope (HRE) QK/QR/RRRAA or the low risk epitope (LRE) DERAA at positions 70-74 of the third hypervariable region of HLA-DRB1.

Methods: A case-control design to compare allele carriage rates in 204 Caucasian subjects with severe RA and mild RA and healthy controls. Patients had a mean disease duration of 12-18 years and severity of RA was defined using clinical and therapeutic criteria.