The detection of serum anti-p53 antibodies from patients with gastric carcinoma in China.

BACKGROUND: Gastric carcinoma is one of the most frequently occurring cancers. The aim of this research was to increase the detection efficiency of anti-p53 antibodies in the sera of patients with gastric carcinoma and to improve the diagnosis for patients with gastric carcinoma. METHODS: We prepared phage-displayed peptide DO7 and established an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method to detect the anti-p53 antibodies. We detected the anti-p53 antibodies of 61 patients with gastric carcinoma using the method and our previous ELISA method assisted by the recombinant wild-type human p53 protein to detect the anti-p53 antibodies. We studied the correlation between the anti-p53 antibodies and the clinicopathological data including sex, age, carcinoembryonic antigen, tumor size, tumor TNM staging, and lymph-node status. RESULTS: The anti-p53 antibodies positive rate for patients with gastric carcinoma was increased (31.1%, 19/61) through the combination of p53-ELISA and phage-ELISA. We found that the positive anti-p53 antibodies correlated significantly with tumor size (P=0.047). The combination of the anti-p53 antibodies and carcinoembryonic antigen could improve the diagnosis for patients with gastric carcinoma. CONCLUSIONS: This approach indicated an increased anti-p53 antibodies positive rate for patients with gastric carcinoma and provided a useful marker for clinical diagnosis for patients with gastric carcinoma.

Prophylactic vaccination with phage-displayed epitope of C. albicans elicits protective immune responses against systemic candidiasis in C57BL/6 mice.

Epitope LKVIRK on 47 kDa of heat shock protein (Hsp) 90 of Candida albicans, corresponding to residues 386-391 of the Hsp90, is recognized by patients recovering from invasive candidiasis. The efficacy of hybrid phage displaying epitope LKVIRK in the N-terminal region of the major coat protein (pVIII) in inducing anti-invasive candidiasis immune response was studied in C57BL/6 mice. Indirect phage-ELISA results demonstrated that the mice immunized with hybrid phage had significantly higher titers of epitope LKVIRK-specific serum IgG as compared to those immunized with heat-killed C. albicans (HK-CA). C57BL/6 mice immunized either with hybrid phage or with wild-type phage also developed significant levels of delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) response and splenocyte proliferation, as well as with HK-CA. In addition, high levels of IFN-gamma in the CD4(+) splenocytes from phage-immunized mice were detected as well during 1 week post-inoculation. Furthermore, mice immunized with hybrid phage acquired a resistance to systemic C. albicans infection as confirmed by fewer C. albicans cells in the kidneys, and had a longer lifespan compared to control groups following intravenous challenge with C. albicans. These results indicate that hybrid phage displaying epitope LKVIRK may serve as a potential vaccine conferring a resistance to systemic candidiasis.