Monoclonal antibodies against the 70-kilodalton iron-regulated protein of Neisseria meningitidis are bactericidal and strain specific.

When grown under iron limitation, Neisseria meningitidis expresses a number of outer membrane proteins (OMPs), one of which is a 70-kilodalton (kDa) major OMP. After immunization of mice with outer membrane preparations of iron-depleted cells of strain H44/76 (B:15:P1.7,16), hybridoma cell lines producing monoclonal antibodies against the 70-kDa OMP were obtained.

Intravesical and intradermal Bacillus Calmette-Guérin application. A phase I study to the toxicity of a Dutch Bacillus Calmette-Guérin preparation in patients with superficial bladder cancer.

In 30 patients toxic side effects of Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) were evaluated after intradermal and intravesical administration. The BCG preparation (BCG-RIVM) was produced in a homogeneously dispersed culture yielding a relatively high number of culturable particles per milligram dry weight BCG. All patients had a history of recurrent multiple noninvasive superficial transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder, and were previously unsuccessfully treated with intravesical chemotherapy (epodyl and/or adriamycin).

Characterization, sequence determination, and immunogenicity of a 64-kilodalton protein of Mycobacterium bovis BCG expressed in escherichia coli K-12.

We report the DNA sequence of a previously cloned Mycobacterium bovis BCG gene encoding an immunogenic 64-kilodalton protein. This protein, MbaA, was purified from overproducing Escherichia coli K-12 cells, and the presence of antibodies to MbaA in human sera was determined by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. In about 80% of serum samples from tuberculosis patients and in about 60% of samples from BCG-vaccinated individuals, significant levels of anti-MbaA antibodies were found.

Equine sarcoid: BCG immunotherapy compared to cryosurgery in a prospective randomised clinical trial.

A total of 30 horses with single or multiple sarcoid tumors of the skin were randomly divided into three treatment groups: (i) cryosurgical treatment, (ii) intralesional immunotherapy with a live BCG vaccine, (iii) intralesional immunotherapy with a BCG cell wall preparation. Complete tumour regression was obtained in all 10 cryosurgically treated horses, in 6 of 10 live BCG treated horses, and in 7 of 10 BCG cell wall treated horses. One live BCG and 2 BCG cell wall treated horses showed partial tumour regression of more than 50% of the tumour area.

Structure of the capsular antigen of Neisseria meningitidis serogroup K.

The capsular antigen isolated from the culture liquid of a Neisseria meningitidis serogroup K(1811) fermentation consists of the 2-acetamido-2-deoxymannuronic acid disaccharide repeating unit as follows: ----3)-beta-D-ManpNAcA-(1----4)-beta-D-ManpNAcA-(1---- The polysaccharide is O-acetylated at the non-glycosylated C-4. Structural evidence has been obtained from sugar analysis, methylation analysis, as well as 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy.