Patients taking opioids produce antibodies that may hinder anti-opioid vaccine

From the August 17, 2020 news release at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

“University of Wisconsin–Madison scientists have discovered that a majority of people they tested who were taking opioid painkillers for chronic back pain produced antibodies against the drugs that may contribute to some of the negative side effects of long-term opioid use.”
…

…”For decades, researchers have understood that the immune system can produce antibodies against psychoactive drugs under the right conditions. While the chemicals themselves are too small for the immune system to recognize, they can permanently bind to large proteins in the blood, which can then trigger an immune response.”…

Read the entire article here

…”If a vaccine can produce antibodies capable of neutralizing the drugs, it could help people combat addiction by reducing the pleasurable feelings the drugs produce in the brain. Past trials of vaccines against nicotine or cocaine have had limited success, in part because of individual differences in how the immune system produces antibodies.”…

——————–
Related article & 3 minute video
Negative side effects of opioids could be coming from users’ own immune systems (video) (American Chemical Society, August 17, 2020)

This video, in 3 minutes, summarizes the University of Madison-Wisconsin article

Looking for Biological Product Information? Try the FDA’s Purple Book

From the February 20 article at Regulatory Focus News

“Regulatory Focus: FDA Launches Searchable Purple Book. “The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday unveiled the first version of its searchable online database of biological product** information, known as the Purple Book. Building off the previous PDF lists of biological products, the database now allows for easier searches and includes information on product names (proprietary and proper), the type of biologics license application (BLA) that was submitted, strength of the biologic, dosage form, product presentation, license status, BLA number and approval date.” I didn’t know how a “biological product” was defined. I got educated via this FDA PDF.“


Click Image for Larger Version

***What is a biological product?

Biological products include a wide range of products such as vaccines, blood and blood components, allergenics, somatic cells, gene therapy, tissues, and recombinant therapeutic proteins. Biologics can be composed of sugars, proteins, or nucleic acids or complex combinations of these substances, or may be living entities such as cells and tissues. Biologics are isolated from a variety of natural sources – human, animal, or microorganism – and may be produced by biotechnology methods and other cutting-edge technologies. Gene-based and cellular biologics, for example, often are at the forefront of biomedical research, and may be used to treat a variety of medical conditions for which no other treatments are available.

Better vaccines are in our blood

Better vaccines are in our blood

From the July 13, 2020 article at the Harvard Gazette



Recent studies on mice have shown the red blood cells not only deliver oxygen to our body’s cells. They are also involved in our immune response. Red blood cells deliver antigens (toxins or foreign substances) to special cells in the spleen (antigen-presenting cells) to generate an immune response.

The article goes on to explain why the spleen is an ideal area for this type of immune response. It is one of the few organs where red and white blood cells naturally interact.

This is a good avenue to explore for vaccine development.
Rather than inject only antigens into the blood, the mice studies have shown it is safer and more efficient to inject red blood cells coated with the antigen.

Read the entire news release here.

[Reblog] Going Viral: The Re-Emergence of Preventable Diseases

From the 19 February 2015 post at Policy Interns

From an aging population to the growing threat of pandemic influenza and other emerging infectious diseases as well as the rapid growth of obesity and other chronic illnesses, the most persistent and costly challenges to American health and well-being fall increasingly on the public health system and on public health professionals at all levels. Unlike health care, which often intervenes when an individual is already sick with a costly disease, the focus of public health is prevention rather than treatment of diseases. Public health professionals, working with state and local health departments, laboratories, and other public health organizations, play a vital and increasingly central role in protecting a population’s health. Yet the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and other public health observers have repeatedly identified deficiencies in public health infrastructure and workforce.

Regional interstate planning, preparing for mass vaccination and the distribution of medical supplies, and development of adequate surge capacity are incomplete or insufficient. The Government Accountability Office concluded in 2004 that “no State is fully prepared to respond to a major public health threat,” an assessment that the CDC reiterated in 2008.

One might look at Figure 1 and think, where are the lines for public health expenditures on federal, state, and local levels? They’re there, almost completely parallel to the x-axis. Federal public health spending underperformed a number of other U.S. health sector expenditure categories overall. As a percentage of all U.S. health expenditures, federal public health spending was lower in 2008 than it was in 1966. To make matters worse, the Fiscal Year 2015 request proposes a $51 million decrease for the immunization program due to an expectation of increased insurance coverage for immunization services in 2015. This is yet another cut to public health spending that will undoubtedly affect population health.

Program operations, which contribute to disease surveillance, public awareness and provider education, took a $14 million cut.

…

While proponents of the ACA said the majority of the proposed fiscal 2016 cuts again will go toward vaccine purchasing and won’t affect immunization infrastructure funds, this cannot be the whole picture. The families and children currently using these programs will be in jeopardy because insurance coverage alone is not enough to ensure high vaccination rates.

…

Related articles

• CDC: Flu Activity Down from Last Week
• Obama Admin Grants Immunity To CDC Scientist That Fudged Vaccine Report…Whistleblower Plans To Testify Before Congress
• Benjamin Franklin would scoff at anti-vaxxers
• Vaccination rates for every kindergarten in California
• Child on Atlanta flight diagnosed with measles; CDC to contact passengers
• New Virus In Kansas : CDC Confirms One Dead From Newly Discovered Bourbon Virus
• More than 100 confirmed cases of measles in the U.S., CDC says

[News article] Friendly bacteria are protective against malaria

From the 4 December 2014 ScienceDaily article

Date: December 4, 2014

Source: Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia

Summary:

In a breakthrough study, a research team discovered that specific bacterial components in the human gut microbiota can trigger a natural defense mechanism that is highly protective against malaria transmission. It is estimated that 3.4 billion people are at risk of contracting malaria and WHO data from 2012 reveal that about 460,000 African children died from malaria before reaching their fifth birthday. The present study argues that if one can induce the production of antibodies against alpha-gal in those children one may be able to revert these grim numbers.

…

Over the past few years, the scientific community became aware that humans live under a continuous symbiotic relationship with a vast community of bacteria and other microbes that reside in the gut. These microbes, know as the gut microbiota, do not necessarily cause disease to humans and instead can influence a variety of physiologic functions that are essential to maintain health. Some of these microbes, including specific strains of Escherichia coli (E. coli) that are usual inhabitant of the human gut, express on their surface sugar molecules (known as carbohydrates or glycans). These glycans can be recognized by the human immune system, which results in the production of high levels of circulating natural antibodies in adult individuals. It has been speculated that natural antibodies directed against sugar molecules expressed by the microbiota may also recognize perhaps similar sugar molecules expressed by pathogens, that is, parasites that can cause diseases in humans.

…

It was well established before these studies, that onlya fraction of all adultindividuals thatare confronted to the bite of mosquitoes in endemic areas of malaria do become infected by the Plasmodium parasite and eventually go on to contract malaria. This argued that adults might have a natural defense mechanism against malaria transmission, which is in sharp contrast with children under 3-5 years old that are much more susceptible to contract malaria. When analyzingindividuals from an endemic area of malaria in Mali,in collaboration with a research team lead by Peter D. Crompton at National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (Maryland; USA) and at the University of Sciences, Techniques and Technologies of Bamako (Bamako, Mali), the research team lead by Miguel Soares established that thoseindividuals that have the lowest levels of circulating anti-alpha-gal antibodies are also those that are the most susceptible to contract malaria. In contrast those individuals that have the highest levels of circulating anti-alpha-gal antibodies are less susceptibleto be infected and to develop malaria. They conclude thatthe reason why young infants are so susceptible to contract malaria is probably due to the fact that they have not yet generatedsufficient levels of circulating natural antibodies directed against the alpha-gal sugar molecule….

Miguel Soares adds: “We observed that children under 3 years old do not have sufficient levels of circulating anti-alpha-gal antibodies, which might be one of the reasons for their exquisite susceptibility to malaria. One of the beauties of the protective mechanism we just discovered is that it can be induced via a standard vaccination protocol, leading to the production of high levels of anti-alpha-gal antibodies that bind and kill the Plasmodium parasite. If we can vaccinate these young children against alpha-gal, many lives might be saved.”

Related articles

• Specific Bacteria in Microbiota Helps Protect from Malaria
• Friendly bacteria are protective against malaria
• Gut bacteria ‘help attack malaria’

[News article] Injectable 3-D vaccines could fight cancer, infectious diseases

From the 8 December 2014 ScienceDaily article

Date:December 8, 2014

 Source:Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard

Summary:

A non-surgical injection of programmable biomaterial that spontaneously assembles in vivo into a 3-D structure could fight and even help prevent cancer and also infectious disease such as HIV, scientists have demonstrated. Tiny biodegradable rod-like structures made from silica, known as mesoporous silica rods (MSRs), can be loaded with biological and chemical drug components and then delivered by needle just underneath the skin, they explain.

…

Their findings are reported in Nature Biotechnology.

“We can create 3D structures using minimally-invasive delivery to enrich and activate a host’s immune cells to target and attack harmful cells in vivo,” said the study’s senior author David Mooney, Ph.D., who is a Wyss Institute Core Faculty member and the Robert P. Pinkas Professor of Bioengineering at Harvard SEAS.

Tiny biodegradable rod-like structures made from silica, known as mesoporous silica rods (MSRs), can be loaded with biological and chemical drug components and then delivered by needle just underneath the skin. The rods spontaneously assemble at the vaccination site to form a three-dimensional scaffold, like pouring a box of matchsticks into a pile on a table. The porous spaces in the stack of MSRs are large enough to recruit and fill up with dendritic cells, which are “surveillance” cells that monitor the body and trigger an immune response when a harmful presence is detected.

Related articles

• Reducing drug allergies without compromising efficacy
• NIAID/GSK experimental Ebola vaccine appears safe, prompts immune response
• Selective Susceptibility of Human Skin Antigen Presenting Cells to Productive Dengue Virus Infection
• Exercising to avoid the flu? It’s all about the sweet spot
• Exercising Too Long Can Hurt Your Immune System
• Parasites use ‘trojan horse’ stealth tactics to suppress immune systems
• DNA nanotechnology breaking through limits to scale 1000 times larger over two years and now can make virus size structure from the bottom up
• This Canadian 3D printer generates a “human skin” bandage for burn victims

[Reblog] Why We May Need Viruses More Than Vaccines | The GOLDEN RULE

 

Why We May Need Viruses More Than Vaccines | The GOLDEN RULE.Posted on November 30, 2014 by Ken McMurtrie

 

An article by Sayer Ji,  Activist Post, provides some thought-provocation and a lateral approach to a science, vaccination, that is currently in the news for its controversial issues concerning adverse reactions.

A groundbreaking study published this month in Nature challenges a century-old assumption about the innate pathogenicity of these extremely small, self-replicating particles known as viruses. 

Titled, “An enteric virus can replace the beneficial function of commensal bacteria,” researchers found that an “enteric RNA virus can replace the beneficial function of commensal bacteria in the intestine.” Known as murine (mouse) noravirus (MNV), researchers found that infecting germ-free or antibiotic-treated mice infection with MNV “restored intestinal morphology and lymphocyte function without inducing overt inflammation and disease.”

The researchers found:

Importantly, MNV infection offset the deleterious effect of treatment with antibiotics in models of intestinal injury and pathogenic bacterial infection. These data indicate that eukaryotic viruses have the capacity to support intestinal homeostasis and shape mucosal immunity, similarly to commensal bacteria. Despite the commonly held belief that viruses are vectors of morbidity and mortality that must be vaccinated against in order to save us from inevitable harm and death, the new study dovetails with a growing body of research showing that our own genome is 80% viral in origin.

Find the full article here.

Infection Report 5: What you really should be worried about | The Pediatric Insider

Infection Report 5: What you really should be worried about | The Pediatric Insider.

From the 10 October 2014 posting by Roy Benaroch, MD

This week’s posts have all been about infections, new and old—infections newly found, and infections sneaking back. On the one hand, the media is agog with news of Ebola and the mysterious paralysis virus; on the other hand, threats that are far more likely to kill us are being largely ignored.

One infection is on the verge of sneaking back, which is a shame. We had it beaten, and now we’re allowing it to gain a foothold. We’ve got a great way to eradicate measles, but fear and misinformation have led to pro-disease, anti-vaccine sentiment, especially among those white, elite, and wealthy. As we’ve seen, we’re all in this together—so those anti-vaccine enclaves are going to affect all of us.

Measles, itself, is just about the most contagious disease out there.

…..

English: This is the skin of a patient after 3 days of measles infection; treated at the New York – Presbyterian Hospital. Prior to widespread immunization, measles was common in childhood, with more than 90% of infants and children infected by age 12. Recently, fewer than 1,000 measles cases have been reported annually since 1993. 日本語: 麻疹患者の発疹. 中文: 感染了痲疹的皮膚. Українська: Як кір поражає шкіру. עברית: פריחה על עורו של חולה חצבת. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Related articles

• These six diseases should worry you more than Ebola
• Containing Hysteria About Infectious Disease

Vaccine-preventable outbreaks

Busting Common Myths about the Flu Vaccine

From the 8 October 2012 article at Nationwide’s Children

With cold and flu season upon us, many companies have geared up for what is predicted to be a busy flu season producing 150 million doses of the influenza vaccine, up 17 million from last year.

“This is a pretty busy time around here,” said Dennis Cunningham, MD  a physician in Infectious Diseases at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. “Our emergency department, urgent care centers and our inpatient numbers always go up because of the flu, although many of those patients could avoid getting sick by practicing just a few simple precautions.”

Dr. Cunningham, also a faculty member at The Ohio State University College of Medicine, said that part of the problem is many people buy into the long-held myths about the flu vaccine and miss opportunities to avoid getting sick. He says following about some of the most common myths:

Myth: You can actually catch the flu from the flu vaccine.
“This is probably the most common myth out there, but it’s simply not true,” said Dr. Cunningham. “The vaccine can give you some mild symptoms, you may feel a bit achy and your arm may be a little tender where you first get the shot. But that’s actually a good thing and shows that the vaccine is working. It tells us your body is responding appropriately to the vaccine.”

Dr. Cunningham said that nobody should confuse a few slight symptoms with the actual flu. The vaccine may leave you feeling a bit warm or achy for a day or two, but with true influenza, someone is sick and in bed for a week with high fever.

It is especially important for children to get the flu shot, or flu mist, which works just as well. Because children are around so many people – from peers to teachers, siblings to adults and grandparents – children are the biggest carriers of the flu  and giving them the vaccine can protect a wide range of people.

Myth: You should wait until it is cold outside to get your flu vaccine.
“Some people are worried that if you get the vaccine too soon, it will wear off by the time winter gets here,” said Dr. Cunningham. “The truth is vaccinating people even in August will protect them throughout the entire flu season. This also includes the elderly who typically have been the group people are most worried about.”

Myth: The flu is only spread by sneezing.  
“Germs are pretty easy to pass around and flu is really contagious,” said Dr. Cunningham. “It’s very easy for one child to give it to another child and the next thing you know, they bring it home.”

Because of that, experts say it is important to wash and sanitize your hands often during flu season, and urge children to do the same. The easiest way is to use hand gels, but make sure they contain at least 65 to 95 percent alcohol. If soap and water are nearby, that is even better for protecting against germs. Wash often and lather up. Make sure to completely rinse your hands in order to get the soap and germs off.

Myth: Flu vaccines do not protect you from current strains.  
From the H1N1 scare in 2009 to swine flu and the bird flu, each year it seems there is a new strain making headlines. But researchers track the most recent, most dangerous strains, and work to stay one step ahead of it.

“The World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pick the strains they think are most likely to circulate in the coming months so that people are protected against everything that may go around,” said Dr. Cunningham. “Every year there are two A strains and one B strain of influenza included in the vaccine.”

The vaccine may leave you feeling a bit warm or achy for a day or two, but with true influenza, someone is sick and in bed for a week with high fever.

Watch Dr. Dennis Cunningham, infectious disease specialist, explain the truth about some common myths about the flu vaccine.

Related articles

• Onset of Flu Season Raises Concerns About Human-To-Pet Transmission(ScienceDaily)

  This concept, called “reverse zoonosis,” is still poorly understood but has raised concern among some scientists and veterinarians, who want to raise awareness and prevent further flu transmission to pets. About 80-100 million households in the United States have a cat or dog.

             This concept, called “reverse zoonosis,” is still poorly understood but has raised concern among some scientists and veterinarians, who want to raise awareness and prevent further flu transmission to pets. About 80-100 million households in the United States have a cat or dog

• Flu Vaccine: It’s Never Too Soon (kelseyseybold.typepad.com)
• H1N1 & Seasonal Flu Vaccines. (zedie.wordpress.com)
• Officials Urge Residents To Get Flu Vaccine (dfw.cbslocal.com)
• US: CDC targets holdout health workers on flu shots (crofsblogs.typepad.com)
• Officials: Flu Vaccine Offers Triple Protection (detroit.cbslocal.com)

Misinformation: Why It Sticks and How to Fix It

From the 19 September 2011 article at Science News Daily

The main reason that misinformation is sticky, according to the researchers, is that rejecting information actually requires cognitive effort. Weighing the plausibility and the source of a message is cognitively more difficult than simply accepting that the message is true — it requires additional motivational and cognitive resources. If the topic isn’t very important to you or you have other things on your mind, misinformation is more likely to take hold.

And when we do take the time to thoughtfully evaluate incoming information, there are only a few features that we are likely to pay attention to: Does the information fit with other things I believe in? Does it make a coherent story with what I already know? Does it come from a credible source? Do others believe it?

Misinformation is especially sticky when it conforms to our preexisting political, religious, or social point of view. Because of this, ideology and personal worldviews can be especially difficult obstacles to overcome.

Even worse, efforts to retract misinformation often backfire, paradoxically amplifying the effect of the erroneous belief.

“This persistence of misinformation has fairly alarming implications in a democracy because people may base decisions on information that, at some level, they know to be false,” says Lewandowsky….

…

In their report, Lewandowsky and colleagues offer some strategies for setting the record straight.

• Provide people with a narrative that replaces the gap left by false information
• Focus on the facts you want to highlight, rather than the myths
• Make sure that the information you want people to take away is simple and brief
• Consider your audience and the beliefs they are likely to hold
• Strengthen your message through repetition

Related Resources

• The Penn State Medical Center Library has a great guide to evaluate health information on the Internet.

  The tips include

  • Remember, anyone can publish information on the internet!
  • If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
    If the Web site is primarily about selling a product, the information may be worth checking from another source.
  • Look for who is publishing the information and their education, credentials, and if they are connected with a trusted coporation, university or agency.
  • Check to see how current the information is.
  • Check for accuracy. Does the Web site refer to specific studies or organizations?

The Family Caregiver Alliance has a Web page entitled Evaluating Medical Research Findings and Clinical Trials
Topics include

• General Guidelines for Evaluating Medical Research
• Getting Information from the Web
• Talking with your Health Care Provider

Additional Resources

• Consumer’s Guide to Taking Charge of Health Information (Harvard Center for Risk Analysis)
• How to Evaluate Health Information on the Internet (US National Cancer Institute)9iiu9
• Quackwatch (a private corporation operated by Stephen Barrett, MD)

 

…And a Rumor Control site of Note (in addition to Quackwatch)

 National Council Against Health Fraud National Council Against Health Fraud is a nonprofit health agency fousing on health misinformation, fruad, and quackery as public health problems. Links to publications, position papers and more.

Related articles

• Misinformation: Psychological Science Shows Why It Sticks and How to Fix It (psychologicalscience.org)
• Why misinformation sticks (indiavision.com)
• Misinformation: Psychological Science Shows Why It Sticks and How to Fix It (tricitypsychology.com)
• Misinformation and Its Correction: Continued Influence and Successful Debiasing (psychologicalscience.org)
• Why Misinformation Sticks and Corrections Can Backfire (healthland.time.com)
• New study analyzes why people are resistant to correcting misinformation, offers solutions (ns.umich.edu)

Vaccine and antibiotics stabilized (with silk proteins) so refrigeration is not needed — NIH study

English: Woman receiving rubella vaccination, School of Public Health of the State of Minas Gerais (ESP-MG), Brazil (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

From the 10 July 2012 EurekAlert

Could pave way for development of enhanced delivery and storage in third world, save billions in cost

Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have developed a new silk-based stabilizer that, in the laboratory, kept some vaccines and antibiotics stable up to temperatures of 140 degrees Fahrenheit. This provides a new avenue toward eliminating the need to keep some vaccines and antibiotics refrigerated, which could save billions of dollars every year and increase accessibility to third world populations.

Vaccines and antibiotics often need to be refrigerated to prevent alteration of their chemical structures; such alteration can result in less potent or ineffective medications. By immobilizing their bioactive molecules using silk protein matrices, researchers were able to protect and stabilize both live vaccines and antibiotics when stored at higher than recommended temperatures for periods far longer than recommended….

Related articles

• Vaccine and antibiotics stabilized so refrigeration is not needed – NIH study (nih.gov)
• New silk technology stabilizes vaccine and antibiotics so refrigeration is not needed (medicalxpress.com)
• Vaccine and antibiotics stabilized so refrigeration is not needed — NIH study (eurekalert.org)
• Stabilizer cuts need to refrigerate drugs (upi.com)
• Stabilization of vaccines and antibiotics in silk (nextbigfuture.com)
• Why Silk May Be Added To Vaccines Someday (wnyc.org)
• Silky scheme for vaccine storage without refrigeration (newscientist.com)
• Silky scheme for vaccine storage without refrigeration (newscientist.com)
• New silk technology preserves heat-sensitive drugs for months without refrigeration (biologynews.net)
• Silk Preserves Heat-Sensitive Drugs for Months without Refrigeration (blogs.voanews.com)

How bacteria behind serious childhood disease evolve to evade vaccines (& related article about bad immunity genes)

Vaccines (Photo credit: www78)

How bacteria behind serious childhood disease evolve to evade vaccines

From the 29 January 2012 Science Daily article

 Genetics has provided surprising insights into why vaccines used in both the UK and US to combat serious childhood infections can eventually fail. The study, recently published in Nature Genetics, which investigates how bacteria change their disguise to evade the vaccines, has implications for how future vaccines can be made more effective…

…

n spite of the success of the vaccine programmes, some pneumococcal strains managed to continue to cause disease by camouflaging themselves from the vaccine. In research funded by the Wellcome Trust, scientists at the University of Oxford and at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta studied what happened after the introduction of this vaccine in the US. They used the latest genomic techniques combined with epidemiology to understand how different serotypes of the pneumococcus bacteria evolve to replace those targeted by the initial vaccine.

The researchers found bacteria that had evaded the vaccine by swapping the region of the genome responsible for making the polysaccharide coating with the same region from a different serotype, not targeted by the vaccine. This effectively disguised the bacteria, making it invisible to the vaccine….

Related articles

• How bacteria behind serious childhood disease evolve to evade vaccines (kractivist.wordpress.com)
• Genetics study reveals how bacteria behind serious childhood disease evolve to evade vaccines (eurekalert.org)
• How Bacteria Behind Serious Childhood Disease Evolve To Evade Vaccines (medicalnewstoday.com)
• Genetics study reveals how pneumococcus bacteria evolve to evade vaccines (medicalxpress.com)
• Pneumonia bug evolves to evade vaccine: study (habwwe.wordpress.com)
• FAQs About Childhood Vaccines (everydayhealth.com)
• Vaccination for Bacterial Meningitis (everydayhealth.com)
• Childhood diseases on the upswing (elkrapidslive.com)
• Letter: The Need for Vaccinations (nytimes.com)
• Anti-vaxxers challenge younger docs’ clinical skills (doctorrw.blogspot.com)
• NIH scientists discover link among spectrum of childhood diseases (nih.gov)
• Rotavirus Vaccine Not Linked to Risk of Intestinal Disorder (children.webmd.com)

Why bad immunity genes survive -Utah study implicates arms race between genes and germs

		IMAGE: This electron microscope image shows yellow particles of a mouse leukemia virus named Friend virus emerging or “budding ” out of an infected white blood cell known as a T-cell. By… Click here for more information.

SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 6, 2012 – University of Utah biologists found new evidence why mice, people and other vertebrate animals carry thousands of varieties of genes to make immune-system proteins named MHCs – even though some of those genes make us susceptible to infections and to autoimmune diseases.

“Major histocompatibility complex” (MHC) proteins are found on the surface of most cells in vertebrate animals. They distinguish self from foreign, and trigger an immune response against foreign invaders. MHCs recognize invading germs, reject or accept transplanted organs and play a role in helping us smell compatible mates.

“This study explains why there are so many versions of the MHC genes, and why the ones that cause susceptibility to diseases are being maintained and not eliminated,” says biology Professor Wayne Potts. “They are involved in a never-ending arms race that causes them, at any point in time, to be good against some infections but bad against other infections and autoimmune diseases.”

By allowing a disease virus to evolve rapidly in mice, the study produced new experimental evidence for the arms race between genes and germs – known technically as “antagonistic coevolution.” The findings will be published online the week of Feb. 6, 2012, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Potts, the senior author, ran the study with first author and former doctoral student Jason Kubinak, now a postdoctoral fellow in pathology. Other co-authors were biology doctoral student James Ruff, biology undergraduate C. Whitney Hyzer and Patricia Slev, a clinical assistant professor of pathology. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

The Nightmare before Vaccines by Kim Rendfeld

The Nightmare before Vaccines « Kim Rendfeld.

Excerpt from the 30 December blog – Kim Rendfeld~ Outtakes from a Historical Novelist

 am baffled whenever I hear news stories about parents refusing to get their kids vaccinated. With no scientific proof that vaccines cause autism, such a practice can only be called insanity.

Perhaps more people should write a novel set in the Middle Ages or at least do the research of an era before vaccines made smallpox, polio, and diphtheria relics of the past in the West and fodder for a historical novelist to set time and place.

Studies of a couple of medieval cemeteries cited by Julia M.H. Smith inEurope After Rome provide chilling statistics, even to a writer who has accepted the fact that most medieval people died young.

A sixth-century cemetery in Cannington in southwest Britain reveals that 15 percent of babies did not survive their first year, and 64 percent of the population died before the age of 18. Yes. That’s two-thirds.///

Related articles

• Frequently Asked Questions: Immunizing Your Child (education.com)
• Vaccines, preventable disease, and the nature of risk (KevinMD.com)
• HIV vaccine developed in Canada approved for human studies (joeydavid.me)
• To Vaccinate or Not to Vaccinate? (education.com)
• Childhood Immunizations and Vaccinations | Special Edition | Education.com (education.com)

Urgent Need To Fight Diseases Affecting The World’s Poor

Image via Wikipedia

From the 22 June 2011 Medical News Today article 

Despite significant advancements in increasing distribution and development of vaccines against childhood killer diseases – including pneumococcal disease, rotavirus, and Haemophilus influenzae Type B – global efforts to reduce the burden of infection from neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) has greatly lagged, argues Sabin Vaccine Institute (Sabin) President Dr. Peter Hotez in an article for the June edition of Health Affairs.

[Above link is abstract only, for suggestions on how to get this article for free or at low cost, click here]

NTDs, a group of 17 parasitic infections, represent a significant contributor to global poverty, and have well documented chronic and disabling effects. Yet efforts to develop vaccines for NTDs have not benefitted from larger ongoing initiatives to combat major childhood diseases.

In his article, “A Handful of ‘Antipoverty’ Vaccines Exist for Neglected Diseases, But the World’s Poorest Billion People Need More,” Dr. Hotez cites three critical reasons for the lack of interest in “antipoverty” vaccines:

• Though NTDs disable, they do not typically cause high levels of mortality leading some in the public health community to misleadingly conclude that NTDs are not a significant public health threat;
• NTDs predominately occur in rural settings and are largely hidden diseases unknown to the public and infrequently documented; and,
• Pharmaceutical companies are reluctant to make an investment in NTD vaccines because there is no financial incentive.

Related articles

• ‘Decade of vaccines’ has potential to save lives, but challenges ahead (eurekalert.org)
• Cumulative Health Risks Faced By Returnee Migrants (medical news today)
• Bill Gates’s plea: help me save four million lives (independent.co.uk)
• Measles are back as parents refuse vaccines (sfgate.com)

HHS Launches New Consumer-Focused Immunization Website

From the US National Library of Medicine (NLM) Public Health Partners listerv

HHS Launches New Consumer-Focused Immunization Website
http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2011pres/03/20110330a.html

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has unveiled a new
website, Vaccines.gov, to help parents and other consumers learn about the
most effective way to protect themselves and their children from
infectious diseases and learn about immunization.

“Vaccines.gov puts the power of prevention at the fingertips of all Americans,” said Dr. Howard K. Koh, HHS Assistant Secretary for Health. “We urge everyone to visit this site and learn more about how vaccines can protect the health of each family member as well as the entire Nation.”

Vaccines.govis the first cross-government website devoted to providing consumer information about vaccines and immunization, combining content and expertise from agencies across the Department. It is the result of unprecedented collaboration among federal health and communications experts to offer online content about vaccine and immunization based on consumer needs.

The site includes content about vaccine recommendations, the diseases that vaccines prevent, important information for getting vaccinated, and tips on travel health. It also links consumers with resources in their states to learn about vaccine requirements for school or child care entry and local community information.

“This website will help ensure that Americans have accurate, Web-based information on immunizations,” said Dr. Bruce Gellin, director of the National Vaccine Program Office at HHS, which led the creation of Vaccines.gov. “It was developed with significant consumer input based on the public’s feedback and is remarkably easy to navigate. It is designed to answer consumers’ questions, educate them about diseases that vaccines prevent, and connect Americans with resources to keep themselves and their families healthy.”

In the coming year, Vaccines.gov will be expanded to include information from other government Departments, grow to include a Spanish version of the site, offer new content on vaccine recommendations and infectious disease outbreaks, and be continually tested to ensure Vaccines.gov addresses the needs and questions of consumers.

Related Articles

• HHS.gov Update: New National Vaccine Plan (blondescribe.wordpress.com)
• Parents Trust Doctors Most When It Comes To Information About Vaccine Safety (Medical News Today)
• Childhood Vaccinations/Immunizations (NCAAM Clinical Digest, April 2011 issue )
• Where an adult can get low cost vaccines (KevinMD.com)
• An advance for a newborn vaccine approach (physorg.com)
• HHS Awards Contracts To Develop New Flu Vaccine Technology (bioresearchonline.com)
• Frequently Asked Questions: Immunizing Your Child (education.com)

How Common Immune Booster Works: Research May Lead to New and Improved Vaccines

How Common Immune Booster Works: Research May Lead to New and Improved Vaccines

From the March 14 2011 Science Daily news item

ScienceDaily (Mar. 14, 2011) — Alum is an adjuvant (immune booster) used in many common vaccines, and Canadian researchers have now discovered how it works. The research by scientists from the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Medicine is published in the March 13 online edition of Nature Medicine. The new findings will help the medical community produce more effective vaccines and may open the doors for creating new vaccines for diseases such as HIV or tuberculosis…

…Alum is a common grocery store staple used in pickling. It is very effective in inducing antibody responses and is the only human vaccine adjuvant approved for large-scale immunization. It has been in use for 90 years and appears in almost all vaccines we receive as without an adjuvant vaccines in general do not work.

For suggestions on how to get this article for free or at low cost click here

Related Articles

• Progress to vaccines against the Plague, bacterial pneumonias, Malaria and TB (nextbigfuture.com)
• Synthetic Vaccine May Fight Malaria, HIV (livescience.com)
• Combatting Anti-Microbial Resistance Needs New Efforts, IFPMA Supports WHO World Health Day(medicalnewstoday.com, April 6, 2011)

The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA) today gives its support to the 2011 WHO World Health Day, which this year takes as its theme Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR) and raises awareness of the problem of antibiotics losing their effectiveness over time as bacteria naturally evolve and mutate to become resistant to drug treatments…

…
WHO has today called on governments and stakeholders to implement the policies and practices needed to prevent and counter the emergence of highly resistant infections, and also to provide appropriate care to those seriously affected by these microbes. The R&D-based pharmaceutical industry echoes that call and commits to play its part in addressing the challenge of AMR. Specifically, the IFPMA and its member companies and associations pledge the following:

1. Continue our investment in R&D programs dedicated to the development of new antibacterial agents.
2. Work in partnership towards a responsible global approach with UN Agencies (principally WHO), national governments, healthcare providers, NGOs and other stakeholders in the areas of education, prevention, innovation, access, financing and capacity-building initiatives.
3. Support the WHO’s work to advise on the appropriate use of these vital medicines.

Universal flu vaccine focus for Adelaide scientist

From a November 2, 2010 Eureka news alert

Vaccine partnership between Australia and Indonesia

A University of Adelaide researcher is leading a collaboration between Australia and Indonesia on the production of a universal flu vaccine.

“The frequent arising of new influenza strains represents the greatest challenge to health authorities as it renders currently available vaccines ineffective,” says Dr Mohammed Alsharifi, the Head of the Vaccine Research Group at the School of Molecular and Biomedical Science, University of Adelaide.

“While annual vaccine reformulation appears to be effective against closely matched strains of influenza, the current method is not effective against drifted strains as well as new pandemic strains, as illustrated by the recent H1N1 pandemic. This raises the need for a new technology,” he says.

Dr Alsharifi says the recent experience of swine flu and the continuing fears of the medical, scientific and world health communities of the sudden emergence of a deadly bird flu strain, means that a new approach to flu vaccines needs to be contemplated.

“What we need is some protection against all influenza virus A strains, including any emergent pandemic virus,” he says…

…

“What we need is some protection against all influenza virus A strains, including any emergent pandemic virus,” he says.

A new technology, invented by Dr Alsharifi (University of Adelaide) and Professor Arno Müllbacher (Australian National University), has helped to generate a new influenza vaccine – GammaFlu™ – that provides cross-protection against current influenza viruses as well as any other unknown strains that may arise in the future.

“Our technology is expected to change the world of vaccination, as it can be implemented to produce many other vaccines,” Dr Alsharifi says.

To translate their basic scientific discoveries into clinical application, both scientists established the company Gamma Vaccines Pty Ltd in July 2009. Gamma Vaccines is now commercializing its gamma-irradiated influenza vaccine to capture part of the global market for flu vaccines, which is estimated at US$4 billion annually….

 

 

Dartmouth study uses the patient’s tumor to form vaccin

Dendritic cell vaccine induces immune responses in patients

A new process for creating a personalized vaccine may become a crucial tool in helping patients with colorectal cancer develop an immune response against their own tumors. This dendritic cell (DC) vaccine, developed at Dartmouth and described in a research paper [Abstract is here **] published this week in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, was used after surgical resection of metastatic tumors to try to prevent the growth of additional metastases….

** Click here for suggestions to get the full text of this article at little or no cost.

 

The History of Vaccines

The History of Vaccines is an informational, educational website created by The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, the oldest professional society in the United States.

The History of Vaccines provides continually updated information to provide a compelling history of vaccine development as well as news about cutting edge technologies in vaccine development and delivery.

The site aims to improve public knowledge through categories as timelines, activities, and articles.
You can also find material through the links at the top of the page: Parents, and also Educators.
Students can find useful material through the links Parents, Educators, Timelines, Activities and also Articles.
Most material is at the high school or early college level.

History of Vaccines

The History of Vaccines is an informational, educational website created by The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, the oldest professional society in the United States.

The History of Vaccine provides continually updated to provide a compelling history of vaccine development as well as cutting edge technologies in vaccine development and delivery.

Site content can be found through either topics or audience types.

• The topics include Timelines and a Gallery of over 400 related images. The Articles range from vaccine science to vaccine information to the history of vaccines. Activities provide self-paced active learning opportunities about the past, present, and future of vaccines and infectious diseases.
• Audience types include Parents and Educators. While there is no student link, students could benefit by going to the Educator, Article, and Activities links. This Web site is written at about a high school or early college level.