Innate immunity is thought to contribute to sustained virological response (SVR) to pgylated interferon- /ribavirin (peg-IFN- /ribavirin) therapy. Natural killer (NK) cells are implicated in the regulation of a protective immune response in patients chronically infected with HCV. We sought to investigate the level of NK subsets among Egyptian patients with chronic HCV and to analyze the influence of IFN therapy on this level. Samples were collected from chronically infected patients (n= 37) at baseline and from a subset before and after 6 months on peg-IFN- /ribavirin therapy. NK cells were...

Schistosomiasis caused by Schistosoma (S.) mansoni is one of the major public health problems in the world including Egypt. Immunodiagnostic methods are more applicable for their better sensitivity and specificity than other methods. The detection of leucine aminopeptidase (LAP) in serum could be more valuable in diagnosis; hence early treatment could be applied before irreversible damage takes place. S. mansoni LAP antigen was purified from excretory/secretory (ES) products by DEAE-ion exchange chromatography and was injected into rabbits to raise specific polyclonal antibodies (pAb) which...

Bancroftian filariasis is caused in human by Wuchereria (W.) bancrofti, which has major antigenic sharing with Dirofilaria (D.) immitis and Setaria (S.) equina. S. equina was used for diagnosis of bancroftian filariasis in human in comparison to D. immitis. Serological diagnosis of filariasis is generally more reliable than detection of microfilaria (mf) in blood samples. S. equina antigen was prepared from the adult worm. Fractionation of both whole S. equina crude antigen and imported D. immitis was done by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The two antigens shared the same band pattern of...