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Magister Scientiae - MSc / "The aim of the study was to use in vitro human whole blood cultures to screen the water samples collected from the Eerste/Plankenbrug river system for cytotoxicity and inflammatory activity and for the first time investigate the impact on the cell- mediated and humoral immune pathways. Water samples were collected fronm the sites during the dry summer season and rainy winter season. Blood was collected from the healthy male volunteers and diluted with RPMI 1640. For cytotoxicity and inflammatory activity 2.5ul of blood for 18-20 hrs at 37 C... This study shows that waster from the Plankenbrug River is heavily polluted by contaminants from both the agricultural area and informal settlement of Kayamandi. These contaminants can be potentially immunotoxic during the summer season and they can result in inflammatory diarrheal disease and immunosuppression in exposed individuals..."

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The sexual behaviours, attitudes, beliefs and communication of 1896 black first-year university students were examined by means of a structured questionnaire for their contribution to the development of a university-based sex counselling programme. The areas of sexuality investigated included intra-familial communication about contraception and sexuality, belief in sex myths, knowledge of and myths about AIDS and the manner of acquisition of sex knowledge. The results of this study are consistent in reflecting much greater deficits in the knowledge of respondents about sexuality than encountered in the literature. Statistically significant gender differences were found for intra-familial communication about contraception, prejudice towards AIDS victims, knowledge of the modes of HIV infection, prejudice towards homosexuals, belief in myths about sexuality, age at which sex information was acquired, the preferred source of information about sexuality, attitude towards pre-marital intercourse, experience of pre-marital intercourse, belief about the acceptability of abortion, experience of pre-marital intercourse and worry about masturbation. No gender differences were found for belief in myths about high-risk AIDS infection, exposure to sex information within educational institutions and approval of sex education. The statistically significant gender differences which were found for most of the questionnaire items reflect the different sexual socialization experiences of respondents. Male and female students may therefore require counselling interventions geared to their respective needs Concern about AIDS has become central to university student sexual behaviour as well as protection against rape and sexual harassment and male responsibility for contraception. All campus counsellors will eventually experience the impact of AIDS and other sexually·transmitted diseases in their sessions with clients. Sexual harassment, rape, contraceptive failure and abortion will also increasingly impact on counselling sessions and require the university-based counsellor's involvement in broader university-wide prevention programmes as well as group based interventions. The development of a university-based sex counselling programme requires comprehensive interventions ranging from individual counselling to human sexuality courses. An awareness of the high profile sexuality problems as perceived by students, is essential for the development of preventive programmes at the group and academic class level as well as at the level of inf luencing uni versi ty policy. Knowledge of the merits of different theoretical positions and interventions for particular sexual problems is crucial for counselling intervention or referral. A systemic model of intervention for sexuality problems is proposed. The task of university-based sex counselling programmes is made more onerous by the paucity and ineffectiveness of sex information students are exposed to, the lack of sex education in the schools and the inadequate quality and degree of intrafamilial communication about sexuality. A significant proportion of respondents engage in pre-marital sexual intercourse without the benefit of adequate sex knowledge. The results of this study emphasize the need for research on the sexuality of, black South Africans, the particular vulnerabilities of first-year university students to sexuality problems and the dire need for structured sex education programmes at school as well as university.

8 1 ABSTRACT (EN) This thesis is focused mainly on understanding mechanisms of regulatory roles of C-terminal Src kinase (CSK) and phosphoprotein associated with glycosphingolipid- enriched microdomains (PAG) in the high-affinity IgE receptor (FcɛRI)-mediated signaling of murine mast cells. FcɛRI activation is initiated by aggregation of the receptor by complexes of multivalent antigen with IgE, followed by activation and enhanced activities of protein tyrosine kinases, phosphatases, adaptor proteins and number of other signal transduction molecules. The signaling events result in mast cell degranulation and release of variety of proinflammatory mediators, responsible for initiation of allergy and other inflammatory diseases. Understanding the function of key regulatory molecules controlling FcεRI-mediated mast cell activation, degranulation, and cytokines production could have therapeutic impact. CSK is a major negative regulator of Src family tyrosine kinases (SFKs) that play a critical role in various immunoreceptor signaling events. However, its function in mast cell activation has not been completely understood. Because of its cytoplasmic localization, CSK was assumed to be brought to the vicinity of the plasma membrane- bound SFKs via binding to membrane-bound adaptors and PAG was a major candidate....

Gliotoxin ist ein ubiquitär vorkommendes Mykotoxin und wird unter anderem von Aspergillus sp. gebildet. Das Gliotoxin ist toxisch und stellt für Mensch und Tier ein gesundheitliches Risiko dar. Über die Aufnahme von kontaminierten Futtermitteln (FM) kann es in tierische Produkte und anschließend in die Nahrungsmittelkette gelangen. Dem Mykotoxin werden starke immunmodulatorische Eigenschaften zugeschrieben. Gliotoxin gilt als eine sehr reaktive Verbindung, die in der Umwelt schnell zu bis(methylthio)Gliotoxin (bmGliotoxin) umgesetzt werden kann. Dieser Metabolit ist sowohl atoxisch als auch biologisch inaktiv und wird aufgrund seiner Stabilität als ein wichtiger und zuverlässiger Diagnostikmarker beschrieben. In der Mykotoxinanalytik werden Konzentrationsbestimmungen primär durch chromato-graphische Verfahren durchgeführt. Mit diesen Verfahren konnten bereits Gliotoxin-Konzentrationen in verschiedensten FM bestimmt werden. Im Gegensatz zu anderen prominenten Mykotoxinen gibt es für das Gliotoxin kein Nachweisverfahren für routinemäßige Kontrolluntersuchungen. Daher war das Ziel der Dissertationsarbeit die Entwicklung eines ELISA, mit dem Gliotoxin in FM einfach und schnell bestimmt werden kann. Es wurden zunächst geeignete Protein-Gliotoxin-Konjugate für die Anti-Gliotoxin-Immunisierung hergestellt. Kaninchen wurden nach einem festgelegten Protokoll mit diesen Hapten-Konjugaten immunisiert (Kurzzeit- bzw. Langzeitimmunisierung). Anschließend erfolgte die Titerbestimmung in den Antiseren und die Überprüfung der Paratophemmbarkeit durch freies Gliotoxin. Aus dem Antiserum mit der höchsten IgG-anti-Gliotoxin-Konzentration wurden die Antikörper antigenaffinitäts-chromatografisch aufgereinigt. Zusätzlich wurde für den kompetitiven ELISA ein geeignetes Gliotoxin-Peroxidase-Konjugat hergestellt. Alle Testkomponenten wurden vorab geprüft und danach der kompetitive Gliotoxin-ELISA validiert. Mit dem optimierten kompetitiven Testsystem wurden die Gliotoxin-Konzentrationen in Schimmelpilz-Kulturüberständen (Aspergillus sp.) gemessen. Anschließend erfolgte die Untersuchung von Futtermittelproben (Silagen) auf Gliotoxin. Nach der entsprechenden Probenaufbereitung der FM wurde das Gliotoxin im kompetitiven ELISA ebenfalls quantitativ bestimmt. Die hier gemessenen Gliotoxin-Konzentrationen wurden mit Ergebnissen aus parallel durchgeführten Untersuchungen mit der LC-MS/MS verglichen. Mit dem entwickelten kompetitiven ELISA sind quantitative Aussagen zu erhöhten Gliotoxin-Konzentrationen in verschiedenen Probenmaterialien möglich. Das Mykotoxin kann sowohl frei in seiner nativen Form, gebunden an Proteine oder metabolisiert als bis(methylthio)gliotoxin detektiert werden. Mit dem Testsystem kann die quantitative Produktion von Gliotoxin durch verschiedene Schimmelpilzarten beurteilt werden. Die untersuchten FM (Silageproben) konnten im entwickelten ELISA alle erfolgreich gemessen und beurteilt werden.:1 Einleitung 1 2 Literaturübersicht 2 2.1 Schimmelpilze 2 2.1.1 Definition und Zuordnung 2 2.1.2 Vorkommen in der Umwelt 4 2.1.3 Bedeutung und Nutzen 5 2.1.4 Schadwirkung für Mensch und Tier 7 2.2 Mykotoxine 9 2.3 Gliotoxin 10 2.3.1 Allgemeine Merkmale 10 2.3.2 Bis(methylthio)Gliotoxin 16 2.3.3 Ausgewählte Pathogenitätsmechanismen 17 2.3.3.1 Redox-Zirkel und ROS-Produktion 17 2.3.3.2 Verschiebung des TH1/ TH2-Gleichgewichtes 18 2.3.3.3 Inhibition des Transkriptionsfaktors NF-κB 19 2.3.3.4 Einleitung von Apoptose und Nekrose 20 2.3.3.5 Inhibition von Mastzellen 21 2.3.4 Nachweisverfahren 22 2.3.4.1 Chromatographie 22 2.3.4.2 Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) 23 2.3.5 Quantitative Mengenbestimmungen in Proben 25 2.3.5.1 Klinisches Probenmaterial 25 2.3.5.2 Belastete Futtermittelproben 27 2.3.5.3 Belastete Lebensmittelproben 33 3 Material und Methoden 34 3.1 Gliotoxin, Chemikalien und ausgewählte Laborgeräte 34 3.2 Gliotoxin-Hapten für die Immunisierung 35 3.3 Immunisierung 37 3.4 Untersuchung der Anti-Gliotoxin-Antiseren 37 3.4.1 Protein-Gliotoxin-Konjugate für ELISA 37 3.4.2 ELISA für Antiserumuntersuchung 39 3.4.3 ELISA für die Bestimmung der IgG-Konzentrationen anti-Gliotoxin 40 3.5 Etablierung des kompetitiven Gliotoxin-ELISA 42 3.5.1 Isolierung der IgG-anti-Gliotoxin 42 3.5.2 Herstellung des Gliotoxin-HRP-Konjugates 43 3.5.3 Prüfung der Testkomponenten 44 3.5.4 Validierung des kompetitiven Gliotoxin-ELISA 45 3.6 Untersuchung von Kreuzreaktionen 45 3.7 Untersuchung von Pilzkulturen auf Gliotoxin 45 3.8 Untersuchung von Futtermitteln auf Gliotoxin 47 3.8.1 Untersuchung von dotiertem Futtermittel 47 3.8.2 Futtermitteluntersuchung mit dem Gliotoxin-ELISA 48 3.8.3 Futtermitteluntersuchung mit der LC-MS/MS 49 3.9 Datenauswertung 49 4 Ergebnisse 50 4.1 Hapten für die Immunisierung 50 4.2 Untersuchung der Anti-Gliotoxin-Antiseren 50 4.2.1 Titerbestimmung 50 4.2.2 Bestimmung der Hemmungsrate durch freies Gliotoxin 51 4.2.3 IgG-anti-Gliotoxin-Konzentration in den Antiseren 53 4.3 Untersuchung der Antiseren 55 4.3.1 Isolierung des IgG-anti-Gliotoxin 55 4.3.2 Voruntersuchungen für die Etablierung des kompetitiven Gliotoxin-ELISA 57 4.3.3 Validierung des kompetitiven Gliotoxin-ELISA 60 4.4 Untersuchung von Kreuzreaktionen 64 4.5 Untersuchung von Pilzkulturen auf Gliotoxin 65 4.6 Untersuchung von Futtermitteln auf Gliotoxin 68 4.6.1 Untersuchung mit Gliotoxin dotierter Futtermittel 68 4.6.2 Futtermitteluntersuchung mit Gliotoxin-ELISA und LC-MS/MS 71 4.7 Auswertung und Bewertung 73 5 Diskussion 78 5.1 Bewertung der Gliotoxin-Antigen Entwicklung 78 5.2 Bewertung der Antiseren nach Immunisierung (28d- und 91d-Protokoll) 79 5.3 Etablierung des kompetitiven ELISA 83 5.4 Bewertung der Pilze und der Kulturüberstände 85 5.5 Bewertung der Futtermittel 88 6 Zusammenfassung 96 7 Summary 98 8 Literaturverzeichnis 100 9 Anhang 116

While a decrease of wild felid population has led to disruption of conservation programme, recent studies have shown the importance of immune regulation for determining health outcomes and co-infection. Immunoglobulin G is important for detecting and evaluating responses to infectious diseases and vaccination. But, there is limited information on felid immunoglobulins and their role for functional immunity. This study aimed at isolating and characterizing lion’s immunoglobulin G. Lions’ sera (n = 68) were processed using the MagReSyn® magnetic beads and the final protein concentration was determined using the Xpose™ Trinean Spectrophotometer. The cross-reactivity of goat anti-cat immunoglobulin with sera of lions and other species was analysed using ELISA. High cross-reactivity was observed in lions ranging from 87.7 to 100%, and low reactivity with rhino (22.4%) followed by chicken (0.01%). The protein concentration from purified sera yielded 39.09 mg/ml. Molecular weight of lion IgG 150-160 kDa was detected with both chains at 54-56 kDa and 24-26 kDa on SDS PAGE. These results indicate a potential aid in developing serological tools to monitor exposure to micro-organisms of lions. / Agriculture and  Animal Health / M. Sc. (Agriculture)

Diabetes has, in the past three decades, surged immensely. Because of this, new insulin analogues are constantly in the making.  In clinical studies, the presence of antidrug antibodies can prove a challenge when measuring insulin. In order to overcome the interference from antidrug antibody complexes on the total insulin measurement in human serum, several pre-treatment methods on insulin and polyclonal antibodies spiked samples were tried using ELISA analysis. Several different methods were tried, acid dissociation using a glycine buffer with and without ethanol in different concentrations, high ionic strength dissociation using MgCl2, Polyethylene glycol (PEG) and filtration. The best results were found when using the acid dissociation technique. Using glycine promising results were achieved, especially when 20 % ethanol was added to the acid mixture. Pre-treatment using PEG, MgCl2 and filtration was unsuccessful with the methods used. The main goal was reached through the use of glycine with the addition of 20% ethanol for acid dissociation. The proposed method still leaves significant room for optimisation and needs further verification on real patient samples. However, it is a good step in the direction of a global methodology using ELISA to overcome antidrug antibody interference for total insulin measurement in human serum.

Human pleasant touches promote feelings of security, supportiveness, and wellbeing. Conversely, human unpleasant touches promote the body for either “fight or flight” or “short term acute stress” during emergencies, feeling of stress or danger. The promoted stress response is released from the hypothalamus by the sympathetic nerve system further to the spinal cord to reach the signals to the adrenal medulla, where stress hormones adrenaline is released. Adrenaline, which is characterized by a mimic sympathetic nerve system, interacts with α and β receptors on different organs. The aim for this study was to investigate whether the stroker (partner/stranger) touch effects on adrenaline hormone releases. The null hypothesis for this study entails a significant adrenaline reduction in partners’ touches compared with strangers’ touches. Indirect competitive ELISA method was used, and concentration data of a total of sixteen participants was obtained. Whitney-U test was carried out to compare group differences within stroker (stranger/partner) touches and adrenaline releasing level. In addition, correlation in adrenaline with noradrenaline and oxytocin hormones was obtained using Spearman’s correlation test. The significant p-value 0.05 was conducted. The result of this study showed no differences between stroker (partner/stranger) associated with adrenaline hormone release. Correlation between partner maximum (max) concentration data for both oxytocin and adrenaline had significant differences. However, max variables for adrenaline and noradrenaline within stroker did not show significant differences. The conclusion of this study is that the gentle touch stimulus used in this study was not enough to detect stress hormone in adrenaline.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which enter the host cells through interactions between the receptor-binding domain (RBD) on the S-protein and the ACE-2 receptor on the host cell. A novel type of vaccine strategy is peptide vaccines, with great potential as a faster and more selective approach to conventional vaccine development. This study focuses on the possibility of generating an antibody response through synthetic peptides harboring B cell epitopes.  Aim: This project aims to investigate the potential of immunogenic peptides to generate an antibody response when used as synthetically produced peptides. As proof-of-concept, the project studies the interactions between previously identified monoclonal antibodies with defined B cell epitopes and the corresponding peptide sequences.  Method: The interactions are evaluated by different ELISA experiments. The candidate peptides are additionally investigated on their binding to polyclonal serum with established S reactive antibodies. Furthermore, the project includes synthesis of one peptide by solid phase peptide synthesis. Results: The ELISA experiments presented no interaction between the synthetic peptides and the monoclonal antibodies or human sera.  Conclusion: The project fulfilled its aim to study the interaction between the B cell epitopes and the monoclonal antibodies. However, no binding was observed. Despite the many advantages in production and stability, development of B cell epitope vaccines come with many challenges. Future will entail if synthetic peptides harboring B cell epitopes can be used as vaccines, or if peptide vaccines will be a focus when a T cell response is to be induced.

HIV-1 is a dangerous retrovirus which represents one of the world's leading health problems. HIV-1 infection is incurable and without proper treatment by antiretroviral therapy it leads to death within several years. Despite intensive research, no HIV vaccine is currently available. This thesis presents a new and unique approach which has not been used for vaccine development yet. The promising strategy is based on small binding proteins that can elicit broadly neutralizing HIV-1 antibodies by mimicking their epitopes. The aim of this project was to select and characterize small binding proteins that can successfully mimic the surface of viral envelope glycoproteins that is recognized by the broadly neutralizing HIV-1 antibodies PGT121 and PGT126. Proteins were selected from a highly complex combinatorial protein library derived from a new type of scaffold called Myomedin. Firstly, the extent of the protein library was narrowed down using the ribosome display. Then the direct sandwich ELISA screening was applied to select scaffold variants that interact with the target antibodies. In total over 200 variants were tested and several promising candidates were found. These Myomedin variants were purified, biochemically and biophysically characterised and the best ones were used to immunize mice....