Serum antibodies to polioviruses in Alexandria, Egypt

Seroprevalence to polio in personnel at a virology institute

OBJECTIVES

To determine the level of immunity to polio in adult personnel at the National Institute for Virology (NIV), South Africa.

METHODS

Polio neutralizing antibodies results on 776 NIV staff members tested between 1979 and 1999 and seroresponses in seronegative personnel given a booster vaccination were analysed.

RESULTS

613 of the 776 (79%) personnel had neutralizing polio antibodies to all three types, independent of age, gender, race or job category. Types 1 and 2 antibodies were found in 92% and 94%, respectively, but type 3 was less prevalent at 87%. Of the 93 persons seronegative to one or more types, 13 failed to respond to the first booster vaccination and 8 remained as non-responders after two booster vaccinations. Of the 19 personnel who were bled four days after booster vaccination, 16 (84%) had already developed an antibody response.

CONCLUSIONS

Most (79%) adult laboratory personnel retained detectable levels of neutralizing antibodies to polio, independent of age, gender, race or job category, and even in those persons lacking detectable antibodies, most (84%) responded with a secondary immune response. Nevertheless the immunity gap, particularly to type 3, mandates routine screening of personnel potentially exposed to wild-type polio virus and a booster vaccination for seronegatives.

Temporal and quantitative regulation of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) modulates cell motility and invasion

We have shown that ER-negative and invasive human breast cancer cell lines MDA-MB-468 and MDA-MB-231 have constitutively higher mitogen activated protein kinase (ERK1&2/MAPK) when compared to the ER-positive and non-invasive MCF-7 human breast cancer cells. In MCF-7 cells, TGFalpha stimulation induced only transient MAPK activation, leading to a transient increase in cell migration. However, MDA 231 and MDA 468 cells, TGFalpha stimulation induced sustained MAPK activation, which correlated with enhanced cell motility and in vitro invasion. Serum stimulation activates ERK/MAPK activity persistently in both ER-positive and ER-negative breast cancer cells, leading to enhanced and sustained cell migration. Inhibition of MAPK activation by anti-sense MEK expression in MDA-MB-468 cells significantly inhibits cell migration and in vitro invasion. In contrast, MCF-7 cells expressing constitutively activated MEK show a significant increase in MAPK activity and cell migration, but this failed to enhance in vitro invasion. The kinetic profiles of MAPK activation and inhibition show a relationship between the duration and magnitude of MAPK activation and cell migration in both ER-positive and ER-negative human breast cancer cells. These studies show that cell motility is modulated by the magnitude and the duration of MAPK activation; but increased activation of MAPK may not be sufficient to allow in vitro invasion in non-invasive MCF-7 breast cancer cells.