Modified ELISA for antibody avidity evaluation: The need for standardization.

Antibody avidity is an important parameter to evaluate immune response, being useful to evaluate vaccine responses and helping to distinguish acute and latent infection. The antibody avidity can be measured by different methods, yet the most common is a modified ELISA. The utilization of commercial kits or in-house methods to evaluate antibody avidity have been adopted more and more, although the lack of standardization between different assays may generate a lot of variation in the process, making it hard to compare the results generated.

Immune responses of meningococcal B outer membrane vesicles in middle-aged mice.

The elderly are more likely to die when infected with Neisseria meningitidis. Aging is associated with immune system dysfunctions that impair responses to vaccines and infections. Therefore, immunization of middle-aged individuals could be beneficial. This study aims to evaluate the immunogenicity of N. meningitidis B outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) complexed to two different adjuvants. Middle-aged BALB/c and A/Sn mice were immunized and subsequent immune response was assessed by ELISA, immunoblotting and ELISpot. IgG levels were similar between the animals immunized with OMVs complexed to adjuvants. A total of 235 days after the last immunization only A/Sn mice presented higher IgG levels than those observed in the baseline, especially the group immunized with OMVs and aluminum hydroxide. The predominant IgG subclasses were IgG2a and IgG2b. Immunization with the three-dose regimen generated IgG antibodies that recognized a variety of antigens present in the homologous and heterologous meningococcal OMVs evaluated. There was an increase in the frequency of antigen-specific IFN-γ secreting splenocytes, after in vitro stimulation, in mice immunized with OMVs and adjuvants compared to the control group, almost 1 year after the last immunization. Both adjuvants showed similar performance. Immunization of middle-aged mice has generated a robust immune response and it appears to be advantageous.

Correlação entre hipertensão arterial e capacidade funcional de idosos: uma revisão de literatura / Correlation between hypertension and functional capacity in older adults: a literature review

O envelhecimento populacional é uma realidade mundial que demanda cada vez mais eficiência no cuidado ao idoso. Sabe-se que o envelhecimento está associado ao aumento da pressão arterial. Paralelamente a esse processo ocorre um aumento da inatividade física e funcional entre os idosos.Objetivamos buscar em bases da literatura científica, estudos que venham analisar a correlação entre capacidade funcional e pressão arterial entre idosos. A busca foi realizada nas bases: PUB MED/MEDLINE;SCIELO; GOOGLE ACADÊMICO. Os descritores usados foram consultados na Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde, foram eles:?Hypertension?; ?Blood Pressure?;?Frail Elderly?, além do termo ?Functional Capacity?. Após leitura dos títulos e resumos foi feita avaliação semântica dos artigos selecionados. Foram selecionados 18 manuscritos pertinentes ao tema proposto. Todos os estudos analisados encontraram uma relação entre hipertensão arterial e incapacidade funcional. Contudo, poucos estudos buscaram ser conclusivos com relação as possíveis causas dessa relação, ou mesmo determinar quais níveis de hipertensão seriam capazes de influenciar negativamente na capacidade funcional. Os estudos mostraram uma associação entre hipertensão arterial e incapacidade funcional de idosos, o que traz repercussões diretas na qualidade de vida desse grupo, bem como um incremento nos gastos com saúde para esta faixa etária. Novos estudos são necessários para explicar melhor as causas dessa relação.

Population aging is a global reality that demands ever more efficiency in elderly care. It is known that aging is associated with elevated blood pressure. Alongside this process there is an increase of functional and physical inactivity among the elderly. Our goal was to search the scientific literature databases for studies examining the correlation between functional capacity and blood pressure among the elderly. The search was conducted on the PubMed/MEDLINE, SciELO, and Google Scholar databases. The descriptors used in consulting the Virtual Health Library were: "Hypertension"; "Blood Pressure"; "Frail Elderly"; and "Functional Capacity". After reading the titles and summaries, a semantic evaluation of the selected articles was conducted. We selected 18 manuscripts relevant to the proposed theme. All the analyzed studies found a relationship between hypertension and disability. However, few studies attempted to draw conclusions about the possible causes of this relationship, or even determine what levels of hypertension could negatively influence functional capacity. The studies showed an association between hypertension and disability of elderly persons, which has a direct impact on quality of life for this group, as well as an increase in health spending for this age group. More studies are needed to explain the causes of this relationship.