Browsing by Author "Shephard, EG"

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    Hypoalbuminaemia in brain-dead donors for liver transplantation
    (Health and Medical Publishing Group, 2005) Ibirogba, SB; Spearman, W; Mall, AS; Shephard, EG; Kahn, D
    Liver transplantation has become established as the treatment of choice for most patients with end-stage liver disease and is performed on a routine basis in most major centres throughout the world. The majority of donors for liver transplantation are brain-dead cadaver donors following either a severe head injury or a massive intracranial haemorrhage. Potential liver donors undergo a rigid screening process before being accepted. This includes a thorough clinical examination to assess the haemodynamic status of the donor and to exclude any overt evidence of liver disease. Blood samples are also taken for viral studies to exclude HIV infection and hepatitis B and C infection, and for liver function tests to exclude liver disease or liver injury. Over the years we have noted that our liver donors often had low serum albumin levels, although this has not been formally documented. A review of the literature revealed that hypoalbuminaemia associated with severe head injury has been documented previously. However the impact of brain death on serum albumin levels has not been studied previously. The present study was therefore undertaken to document serum albumin levels in brain-dead cadaver donors.
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    P19-53 LB. Priming with recombinant BCG expressing HIV-1 Gag or RT and boosting with recombinant MVA induces an effective immune response in mice
    (BioMed Central Ltd, 2009) Stutz, H; Powles, R; Shephard, EG; Williamson, A
    Mycobacterium bovis BCG (BCG) has a number of characteristics that give it great potential to act as a vehicle for the delivery of recombinant vaccines. However, its success depends on overcoming the challenges of poor antigen expression levels and genetic instability. Our studies using an optimized mycobacterial shuttle vector which utilizes the Mycobacterium tuberculosis mtrA promoter, induced upon infection of macrophages, and the M. tuberculosis 19 kDa signal sequence may overcome these issues. We have used this system to generate a recombinant BCG (rBCG) expressing HIV-1 subtype C full length Gag or reverse transcriptase (RT).
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    A prime-boost immunization with rBCG expressing HIV-1 Gag, RT and gp120 and SAAVI MVA-C elicits immune responses in blood and MALT of rhesus macaques
    (BioMed Central Ltd, 2012) Chege, GK; Chapman, R; Shephard, EG; Williamson, A
    CG pantothenate auxtroph (ΔpanCD) is safer to use as a live vaccine vector than wild-type BCG. We constructed 3 recombinant BCGΔpanCD candidate vaccines expressing HIV-1 subtype C Gag, RT and Env (gp120). The current study investigated immune responses in rhesus macaques following a prime with a mixture of these rBCG vaccines and a boost with SAAVI MVA-C (MVA).
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    A single dose of SAAVI MVA-C reboosts rhesus macaques after more than 3 years post DNA-MVA prime-boost vaccination
    (BioMed Central Ltd, 2012) Chege, GK; Burgers, W; Muller, T; Shephard, EG; Williamson, C; Williamson, A
    We have previously reported induction of robust immune responses in rhesus macaques following a prime boost immunization with candidate HIV-1 vaccines, SAAVI DNA-C (DNA) and SAAVI MVA-C (MVA). These vaccines are already in clinical evaluation. In the current study, we investigated whether re-boosting these animals with a single MVA inoculation after more than 3 years was sufficient to restore previous magnitudes of HIV-specific immune responses.