scholarly journals SOME ULTRAVIOLET PHOTOMICROGRAPHS OF B. SUBTILIS

1931 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 449-451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph W. G. Wyckoff ◽  
Adrian L. Ter Louw

1. Type-specific antipneumococcus immunity has been induced in rabbits by immunization with antigen prepared by combining a specific derivative of the capsular polysaccharide of Type III Pneumococcus with globulin from horse serum. 2. Rabbits immunized with this antigen acquire active immunity against infection with virulent Type III pneumococci. 3. The sera of the immune rabbits contain type-specific antibodies which precipitate the Type III capsular polysaccharide, agglutinate Type III pneumococci, and specifically protect mice against Type III infection. 4. The experimental data are discussed with reference to: (1) the concurrence in the immune sera of type-specific antibodies for Pneumococcus and precipitins for horse globulin; (2) the determining influence of the capsular polysaccharide on the specificity of the antigen as a whole; (3) the unity of the type-specific precipitins, agglutinins, and protective antibodies induced by a single compo of the pneu mococcus in chemical union with an unrelated, animal protein.

1931 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 437-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oswald T. Avery ◽  
Walther F. Goebel

1. Type-specific antipneumococcus immunity has been induced in rabbits by immunization with antigen prepared by combining a specific derivative of the capsular polysaccharide of Type III Pneumococcus with globulin from horse serum. 2. Rabbits immunized with this antigen acquire active immunity against infection with virulent Type III pneumococci. 3. The sera of the immune rabbits contain type-specific antibodies which precipitate the Type III capsular polysaccharide, agglutinate Type III pneumococci, and specifically protect mice against Type III infection. 4. The experimental data are discussed with reference to: (1) the concurrence in the immune sera of type-specific antibodies for Pneumococcus and precipitins for horse globulin; (2) the determining influence of the capsular polysaccharide on the specificity of the antigen as a whole; (3) the unity of the type-specific precipitins, agglutinins, and protective antibodies induced by a single component of the pneumococcus in chemical union with an unrelated, animal protein.


1930 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 449-462 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis A. Julianelle

1. Injection of suspensions of heat-killed pneumococci into the skin of rabbits is followed by an active immunity which is effective against intravenous infection by homologous and heterologous types of Pneumococcus. 2. This form of active immunity may be induced by the injection of S or R strains of Pneumococcus. 3. Intracutaneous immunization with soluble derivatives of Pneumococcus does not induce active immunity to infection. 4. The sera of seventy-nine per cent of the rabbits immunized to Type I Pneumococcus by intracutaneous injections afforded no protection to mice against infection with pneumococci. 5. None of the sera of rabbits intracutaneously immunized to the type-specific Type III (S) pneumococci, to R cells, or to soluble derivatives of Pneumococcus protected white mice against infection. 6. The sera of rabbits immunized first intracutaneously and subsequently intravenously possess a high titre of protective antibodies. 7. It may be concluded that when type-specific pneumococci are injected into the skin they lose the property of stimulating an active immunity of a specific type and of stimulating the production of type-specific antibodies, but they act just as do the degraded or R forms, causing the animals to become resistant to infection with pneumococci of all types without the development of any type-specific antibodies in the serum.


2005 ◽  
Vol 73 (10) ◽  
pp. 6752-6762 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomás Maira-Litrán ◽  
Andrea Kropec ◽  
Donald A. Goldmann ◽  
Gerald B. Pier

ABSTRACT Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis both synthesize the surface polysaccharide poly-N-acetyl-β-(1-6)-glucosamine (PNAG), which is produced in vitro with a high level (>90%) of the amino groups substituted by acetate. Here, we examined the role of the acetate substituents of PNAG in generating opsonic and protective antibodies. PNAG and a deacetylated form of the antigen (dPNAG; 15% acetylation) were conjugated to the carrier protein diphtheria toxoid (DT) and used to immunize animals. Mice responded in a dose-dependent fashion to both conjugate vaccines, with maximum antibody titers observed at the highest dose and 4 weeks after the last of three weekly immunizations. PNAG-DT and dPNAG-DT vaccines were also very immunogenic in rabbits. Antibodies raised to the conjugate vaccines in rabbits mediated the opsonic killing of various staphylococcal strains, but the specificity of the opsonic killing was primarily to dPNAG, as this antigen inhibited the killing of S. aureus strains by both PNAG- and dPNAG-specific antibodies. Passive immunization of mice with anti-dPNAG-DT rabbit sera showed significant levels of clearance of S. aureus from the blood (54 to 91%) compared to control mice immunized with normal rabbit sera, whereas PNAG-specific antibodies were ineffective at clearing S. aureus. Passive immunization of mice with a goat antiserum raised to the dPNAG-DT vaccine protected against a lethal dose of three different S. aureus strains. Overall, these data show that immunization of animals with a conjugate vaccine of dPNAG elicit antibodies that mediated opsonic killing and protected against S. aureus infection, including capsular polysaccharide types 5 and 8 and an untypable strain.


1931 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oswald T. Avery ◽  
René Dubos

The bacterial enzyme which decomposes the purified capsular polysaccharide of Type III Pneumococcus in vitro also destroys the capsules of the living organisms growing in media and in the animal body. Potent preparations of this same enzyme protect mice against infection with virulent Type III Pneumococcus. The protective action is type-specific. The protective activity of the specific enzyme is destroyed by heat (70°C. for 10 minutes). The enzyme remains in an effective concentration 24 to 48 hours after its injection into normal mice. The enzyme has been found to exert a favorable influence on the outcome of an infection already established at the time of treatment. A definite relationship has been found to exist between the activity of the enzyme in vitro and its protective power in the animal body. The mechanism of the protective action is discussed with special reference to the relation between the decapsulation of the bacteria by the enzyme and the phagocytic response of the host.


1950 ◽  
Vol 92 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Barry Wood ◽  
Mary Ruth Smith

Experimental pneumonia was produced with a highly virulent strain of type III pneumococcus which synthesizes, during rapid growth, large amounts of capsular polysaccharide. The type III pneumonia differed from that caused by pneumococcus I in that (a) death occurred more promptly in the type III infection, (b) the local pulmonary lesion became more heavily infected, and (c) frank suppuration was common even after otherwise effective chemotherapy. The greater pathogenicity of the type III organism was shown by special histologic techniques to be due primarily to its capsular slime layer which interferes with surface phagocytosis. Capsular polysaccharide shed from the organism during growth was also demonstrated in high concentration in certain parts of the pneumonic lesion. Removal of the excess polysaccharide from the alveoli resulted from (a) lymphatic drainage to regional lymph nodes and (b) phagocytosis, particularly by macrophages. The possible relationship of the free carbohydrate to the malignancy and the characteristically viscous exudate of type III pneumonia was discussed. The lung abscesses which resulted from type III infection were observed to occur in those areas in which the maximum number of organisms had accumulated. Evidence was obtained that suppuration was due, not to necrotoxic products peculiar to the type III pneumococcus, but rather to the survival of large numbers of bacteria in the tissues, brought about primarily by the antiphagocytic effect of the slime layer. When pneumonia was produced with an intermediate type III mutant lacking the protective slime layer, back mutation to the mucoid parent occurred during the course of the infection, and the mucoid form eventually predominated in the lung as a result of selective phagocytosis of the intermediate organisms. Similar mutation to the maximally virulent type III form was noted with a transformed intermediate type III strain grown from single cell preparations.


1930 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernest G. Stillman

1. Following repeated inhalations of the degenerated non-virulent "R" forms of Type II pneumococcus, no type specific antibodies can be demonstrated in the serum of rabbits. 2. Following repeated inhalations of slightly virulent Type II (SAv) pneumococci, only protective antibodies can be demonstrated in the serum of rabbits. 3. Following repeated inhalations of virulent Type II (Sv) pneumococci, agglutinins and protective antibodies can be demonstrated in the serum of rabbits. 4. Following repeated exposures of rabbits to inhalation of pneumococci, the type specific response, evidenced by type specific protective antibodies and agglutinins, varies in direct proportion to the virulence of the culture used.


1935 ◽  
Vol 62 (6) ◽  
pp. 849-860 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecil K. Drinker ◽  
John F. Enders ◽  
Morris F. Shaffer ◽  
Octa C. Leigh

1. Rabbits injected intravenously with a large dose of a virulent Type III Pneumococcus develop a bacteremia, and within an hour organisms may be cultivated from the thoracic duct lymph. The rapidity with which entrance into the lymph occurs appears to be correlated with the size of the dose injected. 2. The organisms may become more numerous in the lymph than in the blood. 3. If homologous or heterologous antisera are injected, the blood may be sterilized, but though the organisms may be lessened in the lymph, sterilization at least within 4 hours is not secured, and in the intact animal living organisms must continue to enter the blood with the thoracic duct lymph. 4. In infected rabbits after intravenous injection of considerable quantities of antisera containing moderate amounts of agglutinin, no antibody appears in the thoracic duct lymph although the presence of horse serum may be detected. The injection of a very large quantity of antiserum containing a high titre of agglutinin is followed by the penetration of antibody into the lymph. This, however, has failed to sterilize the lymph or to permanently affect the rate of multiplication of the pneumococci.


mBio ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Masahide Yano ◽  
Shruti Gohil ◽  
J. Robert Coleman ◽  
Catherine Manix ◽  
Liise-anne Pirofski

ABSTRACTThe use of pneumococcal capsular polysaccharide (PPS)-based vaccines has resulted in a substantial reduction in invasive pneumococcal disease. However, much remains to be learned about vaccine-mediated immunity, as seven-valent PPS-protein conjugate vaccine use in children has been associated with nonvaccine serotype replacement and 23-valent vaccine use in adults has not prevented pneumococcal pneumonia. In this report, we demonstrate that certain PPS-specific monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) enhance the transformation frequency of two differentStreptococcus pneumoniaeserotypes. This phenomenon was mediated by PPS-specific MAbs that agglutinate but do not promote opsonic effector cell killing of the homologous serotypeinvitro. Compared to the autoinducer, competence-stimulating peptide (CSP) alone, transcriptional profiling of pneumococcal gene expression after incubation with CSP and one such MAb to the PPS of serotype 3 revealed changes in the expression of competence (com)-related and bacteriocin-like peptide (blp) genes involved in pneumococcal quorum sensing. This MAb was also found to induce a nearly 2-fold increase in CSP2-mediated bacterial killing or fratricide. These observations reveal a novel, direct effect of PPS-binding MAbs on pneumococcal biology that has important implications for antibody immunity to pneumococcus in the pneumococcal vaccine era. Taken together, our data suggest heretofore unsuspected mechanisms by which PPS-specific antibodies could affect genetic exchange and bacterial viability in the absence of host cells.IMPORTANCECurrent thought holds that pneumococcal capsular polysaccharide (PPS)-binding antibodies protect against pneumococcus by inducing effector cell opsonic killing of the homologous serotype. While such antibodies are an important part of how pneumococcal vaccines protect against pneumococcal disease, PPS-specific antibodies that do not exhibit this activity but are highly protective against pneumococcus in mice have been identified. This article examines the effect of nonopsonic PPS-specific monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) on the biology ofStreptococcus pneumoniae. The results showed that in the presence of a competence-stimulating peptide (CSP), such MAbs increase the frequency of pneumococcal transformation. Further studies with one such MAb showed that it altered the expression of genes involved in quorum sensing and increased competence-induced killing or fratricide. These findings reveal a novel, previously unsuspected mechanism by which certain PPS-specific antibodies exert a direct effect on pneumococcal biology that has broad implications for bacterial clearance, genetic exchange, and antibody immunity to pneumococcus.


1932 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 377-391 ◽  
Author(s):  
René Dubos

All improved method is described for the preparation, concentration, and purification of a bacterial enzyme capable of decomposing the capsular polysaccharide of Type III Pneumococcus. The cultural conditions for the growth of the specific microorganism must be such that the capsular polysaccharide is completely decomposed before any appreciable amount of free enzyme is released into the medium. This reduces to a minimum the decomposition of the specific substrate by the free enzyme. As a result, a larger part of the specific substance remains as a source of energy for the growing microorganism and less enzyme is lost through inactivation during the course of decomposition of the specific substrate. A marked stimulation of growth and of enzyme production occurs when small amounts of yeast extract are added to the medium and when the cultures are incubated under conditions of increased aeration. Special emphasis is placed upon the fact that, thus far, appreciable amounts of the specific enzyme have been obtained only when the capsular polysaccharide itself, or the aldobionic acid derived from it, was present in the culture medium.


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