The inhibitors plates were washed 5 times with 0.05% Tween20 in PBS (PBST) and nonspecific binding sites were blocked by adding 200 μl of 5% skim milk in PBST incubated at 37 °C for 2 h. The plates were then washed as before, the serum samples were then diluted 2 fold (IgG1 1:800–1:25600, IgG2a 1:200–1:6400) in 5% skim milk/PBST and 50 μl added to each well. The plates were incubated at 37 °C for 4 h washed as before, secondary antibody, biotin-conjugated

goat anti-mouse IgG1 or goat anti-mouse IgG2a (Southern Biotechnology Associates, Birmingham, AL) was diluted to 1:500 in 1% bovine serum albumin/PBST (Sigma) (BSA/PBST) was added to respective wells in a 50 μl volume, and incubated overnight at 4 °C. The plates were washed in PBST and 50 μl of streptavidin horseradish peroxidise (Amersham Biosciences) diluted 1:500 in 1% BSA/PBST was added and incubated at 37 °C for 2 h. OTX015 supplier Next the antibodies were detected using 0.01 mg/ml tetramethyl-benzidine (Sigma) substrate dissolved in dimethyl sulfoxide (Sigma) diluted in citrate/phosphate substrate buffer (Sigma) selleck chemicals and incubated for 30 min at room temperature. The optical densities (OD) were measured at 405 nm using a Tecan Infinite m200 Pro Spectrometer. For T cell-based assays SD or SEM were calculated

and p-values determined using a two-tailed, two sample equal variance or unequal variance Student’s t-test or one-way ANOVA to compare the groups, followed by post hoc analysis with Sidak multiple comparison test using IBM, SPSS (formerly known as Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) statistical software version

21. Except where stated, experiments were repeated at least three times. To determine endpoint titres, serum from unimmunised mice was titrated across an ELISA plate beginning at the same dilution as the samples. The samples were considered as positive when the OD was at least 3 times the unimmunised mouse serum. Sample that were found not be positive were assigned the titre of half the unless first dilution. The serum antibody responses were compared using the Mann–Whitney U test was performed using Prism software version 6.02 (Graphpad Inc.) and these antibody experiments were repeated two times. When BALB/c mice were i.n./i.m. prime-boost immunised using the IL-4R antagonist vaccine as described in Table 1 (strategies 2–4), and the CD8+ T cell avidity was evaluated using tetramer dissociation assays, which is a direct measurement of the binding strength of the tetramer MHC-I/peptide to the TCR/complex of the HIV-specific CD8 T cell. This measurement is independent of the numbers of tetramer positive cells in the sample or the ability of a CD8 T cell to express IFN-γ upon peptide stimulation.