Immunotherapy and vaccination against infectious diseases.

Due to the overuse of antibiotics, infections, in particular those caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria, are becoming more and more frequent. Despite the worldwide introduction of antibiotic therapy, vaccines and constant improvements in hygiene, the burden of multidrug-resistant bacterial infections is increasing and is expected to rise in the future. The development of monoclonal therapeutic antibodies and specific immunomodulatory drugs represent new treatment options in the fight against infectious diseases.

Infection With Attenuated Collagen-Induced Arthritis in Mice and Involved Mesenteric T and T Polarization.

Objectives: Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease with multifactorial etiopathogenesis. Among the environmental factors, mucosal infections and the inducing pathobionts are gaining increasing attention. We here set out to explore the gut-joint-axis and the impact of infection on subsequent arthritis.

[Clostridium Difficile: Monoclonal Antibody Therapy and Vaccines].

Hospital-acquired Clostridium difficile infections have become much more frequent in recent years. Besides treatment with antibiotics and fecal microbiota transplant, new preventive strategies are available now. Bezlotoxumab is an antibody against toxin B and may reduce the risk of relapse by roughly 10 %.

Periodontal treatment prevents arthritis in mice and methotrexate ameliorates periodontal bone loss.

Recent studies indicate a causal relationship between the periodontal pathogen P. gingivalis and rheumatoid arthritis involving the production of autoantibodies against citrullinated peptides. We therefore postulated that therapeutic eradication P.

Interplay between P. gingivalis, F. nucleatum and A. actinomycetemcomitans in murine alveolar bone loss, arthritis onset and progression.

Increasing evidence supports the association of periodontitis with rheumatoid arthritis. Even though a prominent role has been postulated for Porphyromonas gingivalis, many bacterial species contribute to the pathogenesis of periodontal disease. We therefore investigated the impact of Porphyromonas gingivalis as well as other major pathobionts on the development of both, periodontitis and arthritis in the mouse.

RE: 'Streptococcus : A novel human pathogen?'.

Streptococcus pluranimalium as a novel human pathogen has been reported by several authors in various contexts. In all reported cases in humans the microorganism was detected by the Vitek2. The great advances with the introduction of new analytical techniques such as MALDI-TOF or 16S rRNA analysis enabled a more detailed discrimination of pathogens such as these nonhemolytic streptococci.