Feature Channels: Vaccines

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Biologists at the University of California, San Diego have succeeded in engineering algae to produce potential candidates for a vaccine that would prevent transmission of the parasite that causes malaria, an achievement that could pave the way for the development of an inexpensive way to protect billions of people from one of the world’s most prevalent and debilitating diseases. Initial proof-of-principle experiments suggest that such a vaccine could prevent malaria transmission.

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A team from the Perelman School of Medicine and the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute at the University of Pennsylvania found that the FDA-approved drug daclizumab improved the survival of breast cancer patients taking a cancer vaccine by 30 percent, compared to those patients not taking daclizumab.

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What doctors wanted everyone to know about their concerns and attitudes, parents concerns and attitudes.

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Mayo Clinic and University of Oregon researchers have confirmed that a genetic factor called a repeating trinucleotide is a strong predictor of an individual’s risk of developing the eye condition Fuchs’ dystrophy.

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A long-term follow-up analysis of participants in the Step Study, an international HIV-vaccine trial, has confirmed that certain subgroups of male study participants were at higher risk of becoming infected after receiving the experimental vaccine compared to those who received a placebo. The vaccine used in the study did not contain the HIV virus, but it did contain HIV genes which were delivered to cells using a vector that employed a type of cold virus known as adenovirus serotype 5 (Ad5).

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Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center are in the first phase of creating “designer lymph nodes.” Designer lymph nodes are built with specialized gene-modified cells that are injected into patients and produce a pre-planned immunologic response for cancer patients locally and then throughout their bodies. The researchers are examining a cancer vaccine “boosting” effect of the manufactured lymph nodes in patients with advanced melanoma.

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A text messaging intervention with education-related messages sent to parents increased influenza vaccination coverage compared with usual care in a traditionally hard-to-reach, low-income, urban, minority population of children and adolescents, although coverage overall remained low, according to a study in the April 25 issue of JAMA.

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Mayo Clinic vaccine expert, pediatrician refute three common myths about child vaccine safety.

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Microemulsion has been found to be both stable and a good candidate for delivering a variety of antigens

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Clyde Martin can discuss the mathematics of measles transmission and why this trend could spell trouble in the future.

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Research shows HSPPC-96 autologous heat shock protein-peptide vaccine may be clinically beneficial for glioblastoma multiforme patients.

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• Eighteen of 22 children had regression, stable disease for more than three months. • Some children experienced immunological pseudoprogression.

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• Stem cells had greater effect than differentiated tumor cells in eliciting antitumor immunity in vivo. • Antibodies and T cells targeted cancer stem cells in laboratory models. • Data could provide a rationale for a new type of immune therapy.

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Researchers at the University of Saskatchewan are closing in on a needle-free vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a major cause of respiratory illness in children under two years of age.

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Researchers from Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Krankenhaus Nordwest and two other institutions have published results of parallel phase II studies testing a promising immunotherapy regimen in patients with melanoma and ovarian cancer

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Discovery helps researchers advance future TB vaccine design.

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Mayo Clinic researchers have trained mouse immune systems to eradicate skin cancer from within, using a genetic combination of human DNA from melanoma cells and a cousin of the rabies virus.

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Using human immune system cells in the lab, AIDS experts at Johns Hopkins have figured out a way to kill off latent forms of HIV that hide in infected T cells long after antiretroviral therapy has successfully stalled viral replication to undetectable levels in blood tests.

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Scientists have identified a promising strategy for vaccine design using a mathematical technique that has also been used in analyses of stock market price fluctuations. The team will give an update on its work at the Biophysical Society 56th Annual Meeting in San Diego, Calif.

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Vaccines have had a profoundly positive impact on human health, but the practice of vaccination also has its detractors. Boise State University biologist Juliette Tinker can discuss the causes of the current loss of confidence in vaccine safety, and the impacts this loss has had on the incidence of disease.

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Administration of routine infant immunizations with a vaccine for serogroup B Neisseria meningitidis, a bacterium that is a cause of serious disease such as sepsis and meningitis, was effective against meningococcal strains and produced minimal interference with the response to the routine vaccinations, according to a study in the February 8 issue of JAMA.

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Although some data have suggested a possible increased risk of intussusception (when a portion of the small or large intestine slides forward into itself, like a telescope) after administration of the pentavalent rotavirus vaccine in infants, an analysis that included almost 800,000 doses administered to U.S. infants found no increased risk of this condition following vaccination, according to a study in the February 8 issue of JAMA.

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A new analysis of state laws that require health care workers (HCWs) to accept influenza vaccination as a condition of employment has been issued by the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services. The report was funded by AHRQ, CDC, NVPO and OHQ on behalf of the Federal Increasing Influenza Vaccination Coverage Among Healthcare Workers Working Group.

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Two Saint Louis University pediatricians are leading a Missouri State Medical Association statewide effort to change the way doctors respond to parents’ fears of vaccines, and to raise awareness about the importance of getting children vaccinated.

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Elevated exposures in children to perfluorinated compounds, which are widely used in manufacturing and food packaging, were associated with lower antibody responses to routine childhood immunizations, according to a study in the January 25 issue of JAMA.

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The phytol-derived compound could be used to boost immunity in cancer patients, in veterinary clinics, aid in fighting infectious agents and be used in preparing laboratory agents and diagnostic kits.

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A national clinical trial testing the efficacy of a novel brain tumor vaccine has begun at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, the only facility in the Southeast to participate.

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New NIH-funded research points investigators toward finding a genital herpes vaccine that works on both viruses that cause disease.

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The rotovirus vaccine was pulled from the marketplace in 1999 after being associated with painful gastrointestinal complications, however, the updated rotavirus vaccines do not appear to increase the occurrence of these potentially fatal side effects, according to a new study by child health experts at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.

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Doctors often do not have the time to run through a comprehensive preventive care checklist with each patient as they manage acute and chronic conditions. Patients also carry some responsibility

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Young women who receive recommended vaccinations to prevent human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and associated cancers do not engage in more sexually risky behavior, according to a study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

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With the coughing, sneezing and achy flu season upon us, new recommendations say that even those with egg allergies should receive the flu vaccine.

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First of its kind study examines alternative immunization schedule occurrence rates in Washington state and pediatricians’ comfort level using alternative schedules.

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Drug companies currently developing therapeutic cancer vaccines may be determining the cancers they target based on the number of annual cases, not the number of deaths they cause. This approach may limit the patient benefits of such drugs, according to a new University of Michigan report.

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Dec. 1 is World AIDS Day, and in commemoration of the occasion, the HIV Vaccine Trials Network, headquartered at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, debunks the top 10 myths about HIV vaccine research.