Feature Channels: Vaccines

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Pertussis (whooping cough) is on the increase in the United States and around the world—and nurses play an essential role in educating parents and patients about the safety and effectiveness of pertussis vaccination, according to a paper in the July-September issue of Journal of Christian Nursing, official journal of the Nurses Christian Fellowship. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

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An international team of scientists, led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, have identified the genes encoding a molecule that famously defines Group A Streptococcus (strep), a pathogenic bacterial species responsible for more than 700 million infections worldwide each year.

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Measles have reached a 20-year high in the United States and the cause lies squarely with those who deliberately refuse to be vaccinated. Eighty-five percent of the unvaccinated U.S. residents who contracted measles cited religious, philosophical or personal reasons for not getting immunized, according to the Center for Disease Control. “Religious, philosophical or personal reasons are not medical reasons for not getting vaccinated,” says Jorge Parada, MD, medical director, infectious disease at Loyola University Health System.

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Seattle BioMed researchers today announced they have developed a next generation genetically attenuated parasite (GAP) that might constitute the path to a highly protective malaria vaccine. The study was published online in the journal Molecular Therapy.

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Researchers have identified differences in the genetic code of pneumococcal bacteria that may explain why it poses such a risk to children with sickle cell disease and why current vaccines don’t provide better protection against the infection.

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Research from Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey shows that the ‘first in man’ series of vaccine injections given directly into a pancreatic cancer tumor is not only well tolerated, but also suggests an “encouraging” period of stable disease. Results from a Phase I clinical trial conducted at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey are being presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Pancreatic Cancer conference in New Orleans this week.

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A vaccine or other therapy directed at a single site on a surface protein of HIV could in principle neutralize nearly all strains of the virus—thanks to the diversity of targets the site presents to the human immune system.

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Researchers suspect that many cancer vaccines fail because the immune cells that would destroy the tumor are actively suppressed. Now, researchers at Thomas Jefferson University have found that a single cell type may be to blame for the suppression, paving the way to better cancer vaccine design.

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A team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) working with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) has discovered a new vulnerable site on the HIV virus.

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Ginseng can help treat and prevent influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a respiratory virus that infects the lungs and breathing passages, according to research findings by a scientist in Georgia State University’s new Institute for Biomedical Sciences.

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New research from the Monell Chemical Senses Center and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reveals that immunization can trigger a distinct change in body odor. This is the first demonstration of a bodily odor change due to immune activation.

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Plans for a new type of DNA vaccine to protect against the deadly HIV and Hepatitis C viruses have taken an important step forward, with University of Adelaide researchers applying for a patent based on groundbreaking new research.

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There are many reasons some people may not get a flu shot, but would they be more likely to do so if there was a simple device that could be mailed directly to them, was easy enough to use by themselves, and provided at least the same level of protection as a traditional flu shot without the pain of a needle jab? A recent NIBIB-funded study suggests the answer is yes.

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Researchers at UC Davis have found that the investigational cancer vaccine tecemotide, when administered with the chemotherapeutic cisplatin, boosted the immune response and reduced the number of tumors in mice with lung cancer. The study also found that radiation treatments did not significantly impair the immune response. The paper was published on March 10 in the journal Cancer Immunology Research, an American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) publication.

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A multi-national research team led by Duke Medicine scientists has identified a subclass of antibodies associated with an effective immune response to an HIV vaccine.

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A new kind of single-dose vaccine that comes in a nasal spray and doesn’t require refrigeration could dramatically alter the public health landscape — get more people vaccinated around the world and address the looming threats of emerging and re-emerging diseases. Researchers presented the latest design and testing of these “nanovaccines” at the 247th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society.

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Using technologies and computational modeling that trace the destiny of single cells, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine describe for the first time the earliest stages of fate determination among white blood cells called T lymphocytes, providing new insights that may help drug developers create more effective, longer-lasting vaccines against microbial pathogens or cancer.

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Somali Americans develop twice the antibody response to rubella from the current vaccine compared to Caucasians in a new Mayo Clinic study on individualized aspects of immune response. A non-Somali, African-American cohort ranked next in immune response, still significantly higher than Caucasians, and Hispanic Americans in the study were least responsive to the vaccine. The findings appear in the journal Vaccine.

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UNC researchers showed that a molecular hinge where two regions of a protein connect is where natural human antibodies attach to dengue type-3 to disable it. It’s the first study to demonstrate how these binding sites can be genetically exchanged without disrupting the integrity of the virus.

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The annual ritual of visiting a doctor’s office or health clinic to receive a flu shot may soon be outdated, thanks to the findings of a new study published in the journal Vaccine.

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The Cedars-Sinai Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute has opened a novel Phase III, vaccine-based clinical trial aimed at providing kidney cancer patients long-term control of their disease.

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New MIT vaccines that catch a ride to immune cell depots could help fight cancer and HIV

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St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists have identified a signature immune response that might help doctors identify which newly diagnosed influenza patients are most likely to develop severe symptoms and suffer poor outcomes. The findings also help explain why infants and toddlers are at elevated risk for flu complications. The research appears in the upcoming issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

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A snapshot of patients who required care at Duke University Hospital during this year’s flu season shows that those who had not been vaccinated had severe cases and needed the most intensive treatment.

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Dengue fever and West Nile fever are mosquito-borne diseases that affect hundreds of millions of people worldwide each year, but there is no vaccine against either of the related viruses.

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Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have invented a new method for designing artificial proteins and have used it to make key ingredients for a candidate vaccine against a dangerous virus, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a significant cause of infant mortality.

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A new study may alleviate concerns that the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine leads to either the initiation of sex or unsafe sexual behaviors among teenage girls and young women.

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Childhood immunization recommendations have been the focus of increased attention over the past decade. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) currently has an age-specific schedule of recommendations for sixteen vaccine preventable diseases for children/adolescents.

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A new study by McGill University will examine whether vaccinating only one partner in a couple against the human papillomavirus (HPV) can help prevent transmission of HPV to the unvaccinated partner.

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Preliminary results of a small clinical trial show that a vaccine used to treat women with high-grade precancerous cervical lesions triggers an immune cell response within the damaged tissue itself. The Johns Hopkins scientists who conducted the trial said the finding is significant because measuring immune system responses directly in the lesions may be a more accurate way to evaluate so-called “therapeutic” vaccines than by the conventional means of blood analysis.

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Seattle BioMed researchers identified two HIV-1 Envelope immunogens that elicit broadly neutralizing antibodies when introduced as a vaccine. The study was published online in PLOS One.

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The risk of developing cervical cancer can be significantly decreased through human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination. Despite calls from leading health and professional organizations for universal vaccination for girls ages 11 and 12, the most recently published national data indicate that only 14.5 percent of 11- and 12-year-old girls have received at least one dose of the HPV vaccine and 3 percent have completed the three-dose series. A new Moffitt Cancer Center study provides insight into physician recommendations, one important factor that may contribute to these low levels of uptake.

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Shingles, a painful blistering virus related to the chicken pox, are more common in the winter and spring than any other time of the year. While people over the age of 60 account for 50% of all shingles cases, less than 15% get a vaccine that can prevent the illness. Now, a new study is showing that simple hi- and low-tech interventions may help motivate seniors to get vaccinated. The study also suggests that the combined use of pharmacists and electronic medical records could be successfully reapplied to managing other preventable or chronic illnesses.

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University of Washington engineers hope a new type of vaccine they have shown to work in mice will one day make it cheaper and easy to manufacture on-demand vaccines for humans. Immunizations could be administered within minutes where and when a disease is breaking out.

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Giving young children the influenza and pneumococcal vaccines together appears to increase their risk of fever, according to a study led by researchers from Columbia University Medical Center and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study looked at children 6–23 months old, and was published online on Jan. 6, 2014, in JAMA Pediatrics.

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Sudden onset of fever. Nausea. Body aches. Coughing. Sneezing. All these classic symptoms of flu are quickly spreading across offices, classrooms, and neighborhoods.

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Every year, patients have "a bucketful of excuses" for not getting a flu vaccine. Dr. Jennifer Caudle, of RowanSOM discusses and dispels the seven most common myths and misconceptions she hears about the vaccine.

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In a study of older mice, wolfberries appear to interact with the influenza vaccine to offer additional protection against the flu virus. The research from Tufts University suggests the wolfberry may increase the activity of dendritic cells, which play an important role in the ability of the immune system to defend against viral infections.

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Knowledge about the efficacy of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine in preventing cervical cancer was lacking in the majority of survey respondents for whom the information would be relevant, according to results presented here at the Sixth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved, held Dec. 6-9.

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A vaccine used to prevent tuberculosis in other parts of the world may help prevent multiple sclerosis (MS) in people who show the beginning signs of the disease, according to a new study published in the December 4, 2013, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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Iowa State's Balaji Narasimhan thinks nanovaccines can revolutionize the prevention and treatment of diseases. And so he's using an Iowa State presidential research grant to assemble a "dream team" to research and develop nanovaccines.

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Barriers to human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination among adolescents in the U.S. range from financial concerns and parental attitudes to social influences and concerns about the vaccination’s effect on sexual behavior, according to a review of the available medical literature published by JAMA Pediatrics, a JAMA Network publication.

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Thomas Jefferson University is developing a single dose rabies and contraceptive vaccine to reduce the infection's human mortality rates worldwide as part of their Grand Challenges Explorations award, an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

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The number of adverse events reported for the HPV vaccine Gardasil® correlated with an increase in the number of media stories about the vaccine, finds a study in The Journal of Adolescent Health.

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Loyola University Medical Center is enrolling melanoma patients in the first clinical trial in the Midwest of an experimental vaccine that trains a patient's immune system to fight the deadly cancer.

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A new University of Michigan study found that the state immunization registry – the public health database that tracks vaccinations– can be an effective tool to encourage influenza vaccinations during a pandemic.

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Should flu vaccines be mandatory for health care workers? That’s the question raised this week in the British Medical Journal to two health care providers, including Penn Medicine’s Amy J. Behrman, MD, in a “Head to Head” piece that argues both sides of the debate.