Antibody against extracellular vaccinia virus (EV) protects mice through complement and Fc receptors

Protein-based subunit smallpox vaccines have shown their potential as effective alternatives to live virus vaccines in animal model challenge studies. We vaccinated mice with combinations of three different vaccinia virus (VACV) proteins (A33, B5, L1) and examined how the combined antibody responses to these proteins cooperate to effectively neutralize the extracellular virus (EV) infectious form of VACV. Antibodies against these targets were generated in the presence or absence of CpG adjuvant so that Th1-biased antibody responses could be compared to Th2-biased responses to the proteins with aluminum hydroxide alone, specifically with interest in looking at the ability of anti-B5 and anti-A33 polyclonal antibodies (pAb) to utilize complement-mediated neutralization in vitro. We found that neutralization of EV by anti-A33 or anti-B5 pAb can be enhanced in the presence of complement if Th1-biased antibody (IgG2a) is generated. Mechanistic differences found for complement-mediated neutralization showed that anti-A33 antibodies likely result in virolysis, while anti-B5 antibodies with complement can neutralize by opsonization (coating). In vivo studies found that mice lacking the C3 protein of complement were less protected than wild-type mice after passive transfer of anti-B5 pAb or vaccination with B5. Passive transfer of anti-B5 pAb or monoclonal antibody into mice lacking Fc receptors (FcRs) found that FcRs were also important in mediating protection. These results demonstrate that both complement and FcRs are important effector mechanisms for antibody-mediated protection from VACV challenge in mice.     

Sexual dysfunction among Ghanaian men presenting with various medical conditions

Background  

Several medical conditions can affect and disrupt human sexuality. The alteration of sexuality in these medical conditions often hinder effective communication and empathy between the patients and their sexual partners because of cultural attitudes, social norms and negative feelings such as anxiety and guilt. Validated and standardized sexual inventories might therefore help resolve this problem. The objective of this cross-sectional study was to obtain data on the prevalence of male sexual dysfunction (SD) among Ghanaians with various medical conditions residing in Kumasi.