Despite several decades of intensive studies, no vaccines against Chlamydia trachomatis, an intracellular pathogen causing serious ocular and urogenital diseases, are available yet. Infection-induced ...immunity in both animal models and humans strongly supports the notion that for a vaccine to be effective a strong CD4⁺ Th1 immune response should be induced. In the course of our vaccine screening program based on the selection of chlamydial proteins eliciting cell-mediated immunity, we have found that CT043, a protein annotated as hypothetical, induces CD4⁺ Th1 cells both in chlamydia-infected mice and in human patients with diagnosed C. trachomatis genital infection. DNA priming/protein boost immunization with CT043 results in a 2.6-log inclusion-forming unit reduction in the murine lung infection model. Sequence analysis of CT043 from C. trachomatis human isolates belonging to the most representative genital serovars revealed a high degree of conservation, suggesting that this antigen could provide cross-serotype protection. Therefore, CT043 is a promising vaccine candidate against C. trachomatis infection.
The defense against damaging attack at mouth level caused by reactive species, in particular reactive oxygen species (ROS), is guaranteed by saliva, the main constituent of the antioxidant barrier. ...The aim of the performed tests was to establish the precision, linearity, and accuracy of the new patented test, SAT, on saliva samples taken from healthy volunteers. The analysis also provided useful information on storage conditions of the sample at low temperatures and on the normality range and defined the influences of interferences (in particular phosphates) in the determination.
Sixty apparently healthy volunteers were selected to verify the antioxidant capacity of the oral cavity using the new patented SAT method.
SAT performed on 70 saliva samples demonstrated that the test was precise, linear (R = 0.9994), accurate, and reproducible (CV 4.39%). The SAT values in the saliva samples analyzed had a normal distribution with a control range for healthy subjects of 947-1459 micromol/L. The fundamental presence of a particular salt in the SAT solutions allowed avoidance of phosphate interference and eliminated false positives.
SAT can be considered an important predictive test not only for periodontal disease, caries, gingivitis, and general pathologies related to oral cavity, but also for systemic diseases such as: cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, and others.
Antioxidants (AOs) represent the main barrier of defense against damaging aggression due to reactive species, in particular by reactive oxygen species (ROS). The plasma AO capacity is a measure of ...physiological, environmental, and nutritional factors (exposure to ROS and antioxidant supplementation) determining the redox status in humans and can underline the oxidative stress (OS) conditions in the progression/development of many diseases. Moreover, changes in AO plasma content after supplementation may provide information on the absorption and bioavailability of nutritional compounds and efficacy of AO therapy.
The aim of the study was a comparison between the common BAP (Biological Antioxidant Potential) test, used for the evaluation of the antioxidant capacity, and the innovative PAT (Plasma Antioxidant Test) and to assess both the in vitro interferences of phosphates on the iron reduction and the interference of the plasmatic concentration of phosphates in relation to the plasma antioxidant capacity measured with the two methods.
Thirty-six apparently healthy volunteers were involved in the study for the comparison of the two methods.
BAP test and PAT performed on 36 plasma samples demonstrated that plasma antioxidant capacity dosage using the BAP test resulted in overestimated levels in relation to plasma phosphate. Increased BAP values due to phosphates correspond to increased differences between BAP and PAT value (correlation coefficient R = 0.812, p = 0.001).
PAT can be considered an innovative and predictable method for the measure of the antioxidant power of plasma.
Background: Plasma antioxidants (AOs) represent the main barrier of defense against damaging aggression due to reactive species, by reactive oxygen species (ROS). Moreover, changes in AOs plasma ...content after supplementation may provide information on the absorption and bioavailability of nutritional compounds and efficacy of AOs therapy. Aim: The aim of this study was to make a comparison between the known BAP test (Biological Antioxidant Potential), used for the evaluation of the antioxidant capacity, and the innovative PAT (Plasma Antioxidant Test), and the evaluation of the precision, linearity and accuracy of the new patented PAT on plasma samples taken from healthy volunteers. Materials and Methods: Twenty-two apparently healthy volunteers were involved in the study for the comparison of the two methods. Results: Analysis performed on 22 plasma samples demonstrated that, following the application of the algorithm, BAP and PAT were interchangeable. PAT resulted extremely precise, linear (R=0.9991), accurate and reproducible (CV 4.17%). PAT values from plasma samples had a normal distribution, evidencing a control range for healthy subjects. Conclusion: PAT can be considered an innovative and predictable method for the measure of the antioxidant power of plasma.
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