“
“It has been proposed that helminth infection may be particularly detrimental during pregnancy, through adverse effects on maternal anaemia and on birth outcomes, and that anthelminthic

treatment during pregnancy will therefore be particularly beneficial. However, the few treatment trials that have been conducted have given, but little support to this notion and further trials in settings of nutritional stress are needed. It has also been proposed that prenatal exposure to helminth infection has an important effect on the development of the foetal immune response. There is evidence that this may impact, long-term, upon responses to helminth and nonhelminth antigens, and to allergens. Exposure to helminths in utero may also have nonspecific effects that may modify the offspring’s susceptibility to diseases mediated by inflammation, including metabolic disorders. The mechanisms of such effects are not known, but they deserve to be explored as current C59 wnt epidemiological findings suggest

the possibility of primary prevention for inflammatory conditions such as allergy, through intervention during pregnancy. “
“Ag85b and HspX of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) (H37Rv) were expressed and purified in this study. These two proteins were combined with another fusion protein CFP-10:ESAT-6 (C/E) (Ag), then mixed with the adjuvants CpG DNA and aluminum hydroxide and used to vaccinate mice and guinea pigs challenged with Mtb (H37Rv). The number of spleen lymphocytes secreting Ag85b, HspX and C/E-specific interferon-γ Carfilzomib mw were significantly higher in the SPTLC1 Ag+Al+CpG group than in the Ag and CpG groups. The combination of Ag, Al and CpG induced the highest concentrations of anti-Ag85b, anti-HspX and anti-C/E immunoglobulin G in mouse serum. Mouse peritoneal macrophages from the Ag+Al+CpG group secreted significantly higher levels of interleukin-12 compared with macrophages from the other groups. The total

mean liver, lung and spleen lesion scores and bacterial loads in the spleen in guinea pigs vaccinated with Ag+Al+CpG were lower than those of the other groups, but no significant difference was found. These results show that the mixture of Ag85b, HspX and C/E with a combination of CpG and aluminum adjuvants can induce both humoral and cellular immune responses in mice, whereas it plays only a small role in the control of disease progression in guinea pigs challenged with Mtb. Tuberculosis, the second leading cause of mortality in the world, is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). WHO (2006) estimated that 9.27 million new cases of tuberculosis occurred in 2007 and 1.32 million HIV-negative people died from tuberculosis worldwide. Mycobacterium bovis Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is a unique vaccine against tuberculosis that is currently available and has been used for over 60 years. BCG efficiently protects children against severe disease (Colditz et al.