Vitamin D supplementation and calcium: Many-faced gods or nobody in fighting against Corona Virus Disease 2019.

In December 2019, Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first identified and designated as a pandemic in March 2020 due to rapid spread of the virus globally. At the beginning of the pandemic, only a few treatment options, mainly focused on supportive care and repurposing medications, were available. Due to its effects on immune system, vitamin D was a topic of interest during the pandemic, and researchers investigated its potential impact on COVID-19 outcomes.

Epitope specificity of anti-factor VIII antibodies from inhibitor positive acquired and congenital haemophilia A patients using synthetic peptides spanning A and C domains.

Development of antibodies (Ab) that either block the function of coagulation factor VIII (FVIII) (inhibitors) or clear it from circulation, seriously complicate the treatment of haemophilia A patients with FVIII products. Autoantibodies which develop in subjects without congenital FVIII defects, cause acquired haemophilia, a rare but life-threatening coagulopathy. Identification of the FVIII epitopes to which inhibitor Abs bind will help understanding the mechanisms of inhibitor activity, and perhaps development of new therapies.

Effective CpG immunotherapy of breast carcinoma prevents but fails to eradicate established brain metastasis.

Purpose: Breast cancer patients with brain metastasis have a dismal prognosis. We determined the ability of immunostimulatory CpG oligodeoxynucleotides (ODN) to treat or prevent brain metastasis in a mouse model.

Experimental Design: Mice bearing orthotopic breast carcinoma with or without concurrent i.

In vivo vaccination with tumor cell lysate plus CpG oligodeoxynucleotides eradicates murine glioblastoma.

Dendritic cell (DC) vaccines have shown antitumor activity in experimental glioma models and in human glioma patients. The typical approach has been to generate the vaccine ex vivo, by pulsing DCs with tumor lysate or peptides, then administering the DCs back into the patient. This process requires significant expertise and expenses in DC generation.

Assessment of in vitro cytokine response in hemophilia A patients with or without factor VIII inhibitory antibody.

Factor VIII (FVIII) inhibitor antibodies are produced in a proportion of hemophilia A patients. Development of anti-FVIII inhibitor antibodies is a T cell-dependent response, mediated by FVIII specific CD4(+) T cells. This study was performed to investigate the contribution of T helper (Th) cell-mediated cytokine response in inhibitor production.

Private idiotypes located on light and heavy chains of human myeloma proteins characterized by monoclonal antibodies.

Idiotypic determinant, an epitope located on the variable region of the heavy or light chain of an immunoglobulin molecule, could be classified into private and public forms. The private idiotype is a marker unique to a single clone of B cell and hence a fingerprint of an individual clone. It could therefore be exploited to monitor expansion of normal or malignant B cells and to target clonally expanded tumorous B cells specifically.

Molecular analysis of the heavy chain variable region genes of human hybridoma clones specific for coagulation factor VIII.

HemophiliaA is a X-linked hematologic disorder characterized by undetectable or low amounts of functional coagulation factor VIII (FVIII). Replacement therapy induces FVIII neutralizing antibody (Ab) (inhibitor) in a proportion of patients which makes further treatment of these patients ineffective and costly. To envisage mechanisms underlying inhibitor development, seven hybridoma clones specific for FVIII were generated from two hemophilia A patients with high titer of inhibitor.

Comparative measurement of anti-factor VIII antibody by Bethesda assay and ELISA reveals restricted isotype profile and epitope specificity.

Factor VIII (FVIII) inhibitor antibodies are produced against functional epitopes of FVIII in about 30% of severe hemophilia A patients leading to inhibition of its procoagulant activity. The Bethesda assay, the most commonly used method to measure FVIII inhibitors, based on inhibition of coagulant activity of FVIII, is neither able to detect noninhibitory antibodies nor their isotype. In this study we employed an indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to measure dif ferent isotypes and IgG subclasses of anti-FVIII anti body in the plasma of hemophiliacs (with and without inhibitor) and normal individuals using recombinant FVIII-coated microtiter plates.