Abstract Archive February 2008 Research article Typing of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus using whole cell polypeptide and immunoblotting techniques Abstract The methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolated from various clinical specimens were typed so as to identify the common clone of this region and the typing accuracy of sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and western blot techniques was assessed. Fifty two isolates of MRSA isolated from Coimbatore, Tamilnadu were typed by analyses of whole cell and exported proteins. The banding patterns of whole cell protein profiles obtained by SDS-PAGE and the immunoblots of exported proteins were compared. The average percentage similarity (%S) among the whole cell protein profiles and immnoblots was calculated based on Dice co-efficient. An average percentage similarity of 72.2% amongst the MRSA isolates was determined based on whole cell proteins. Where as the average percentage similarity based on excretory protein profiles was found to be 84.6%. SDS-PAGE of whole cell extracts was not much helpful in distinguishing different isolates of MRSA. But, patterns obtained by immunoblot could be divided into 3 types based on Dice coefficient. However, as the dissimilarity was very meager within each group, the precise typing of such isolates was found to be difficult using either one of these techniques. Authors:K. Rajaduraipandi, K. Panneerselvam, K. Ravikumar, P. Rajasekaran, C.Manoharan,S.Shanmugam. Review Vaccines and Immunization The deviation of man from the state in which he was originally placed by nature seems to have proved to him a prolific source of diseases”- Edward Jenner. Learning Objectives: This article deals with: l  The types of immunity viz. active and passive immunity and how immunization is inducing    immunity l  Brief history of vaccination and different novel approaches followed to    design and develop    safe and efficient vaccines l  Different types of vaccines and their advantages, disadvantages and other    characteristic    features l  Challenges and Concerns in vaccine development and the possible adverse    reactions due to    vaccination l  Ongoing research in vaccinology for developing effective vaccines against    many life    threatening diseases Introduction We are in a continual war with microbial pathogens, and they are evolving faster than we are. However, in most cases the host defence mechanism takes care of the invaders. Immunization refers to the process of generating immunity in an organism. Our immune system is a remarkably evolved system. It can be taught to fight pathogenic microbes quickly. Immunization starts with the embryonic stage (in the passive form), where mother provides antibodies to the developing foetus through the placenta. After birth, the infant continues to receive direct antibodies from colostrum, whatever immunity the mother has is transferred to the baby. To still add on to protection against deadly diseases, we have varieties of vaccines. Though, vaccines are dependent on many factors like environment, genetic makeup of the host and lifestyle, they still are the most effective agents that save millions of lives. Vaccines have helped to overcome deadly diseases like Diphtheria, Measles, Mumps, Poliomyelitis, Smallpox and many other contagious infections. Vaccines are organism specific and sometimes even strain-specific (as in the case of anthrax vaccine that is most effective only against certain strains). Vaccine technology has developed a long way from using conventional 'attenuated' viral/microbial vaccines to nanoparticle mediated DNA vaccines. The advancements in immunotechnology research and molecular biology have led to generation of novel promising vaccines with enhanced activity. The increasing knowledge on T cell and B cell molecular mechanism has enabled researchers to design efficient vaccine strategies. It is estimated that vaccination has prevented about 4 million deaths in 2007. This fruit is the result of productive hard work of thousands of researchers throughout the world to provide a tool to fight against those “notorious” little creatures, who have always troubled the mankind. A crying need still remains for vaccines against many other diseases. The manufacture of a simple vaccine and its testing may take decades and this effort is fruitful only if vaccines are cost effective, safe, can be delivered to all and are easily accessible. In the past two decades a number of emerging pathogens have been detected, including HIV, hantavirus a variant of Creutzfeld-Jacob disease that causes mad cow disease, West Nile virus, Multiple antibiotic resistant (MAR) pathogens, and SARS. As the molecular understanding of the pathogen improves due to different scientific and research developments, numerous new vaccines are under pipeline. There is a great hope among the researchers to design vaccines against as many diseases as possible and safeguard the human population from agony, misery and sufferings. However, due to the differences in the genetic makeup, it is difficult to make universal vaccine to provide optimal protection for a polymorphic population in different environment and habitat. Note from authors: Though there are number of articles, books and technical literatures referred for making this article, it is difficult to list all of them due to space constrain. A detailed list of bibliography is given in the online version of this article. Short Communication Comparative Study of Amyloglucosidase Immobilized on a variety of carriers using different Immobilization techniques Abstract Amyloglucosidase (EC 3.2.1.3) was immobilized on four different carriers using different immobilization techniques and the immobilized enzymes (IMEs) were evaluated for their activities and coupling efficiencies. These involve adsorption and adsorption followed by cross-linking on two types of activated charcoals (fine and granular forms) and fuller's earth; gel entrapment using gelatin in the presence of activated charcoal (fine), TiCl4 - activated and silane glutaraldehyde treated cellulose. Among those tested, the enzyme adsorbed and cross - linked on activated charcoal (fine) had shown maximum activity with good coupling efficiency. The other carrier, which gave considerably better activity, was TiCl4 - activated cellulose. The IME prepared on cellulose using silane glutaraldehyde method was less active compared to IME on TiCl4 - activated cellulose. Gelatin gel entrapped enzyme yielded very low IME activity, which may be attributed to diffusional resistances for the penetration of the high molecular weight substrate like starch. In search of the other economically cheap and efficient carriers that could be used as supports for the immobilization of amyloglucosidase apart from magnetic iron oxide (as reported by us earlier), this comparative study, with the above-mentioned carriers using a range of immobilization techniques, was carried out. Keywords: Amyloglucosidase, Immobilization, Carriers, Activated Charcoal, Cellulose, Gelatin, Adsorption, Adsorption followed by cross-linking, TiCl4 Activation, Silane-glutaraldehyde method, Gel entrapment. Author: Vijaya M.