Results tagged “research” from Vaccination News

ALLERGY sufferers could bid farewell to their sneezes with a new generation of vaccines that take effect within weeks.

Existing vaccines for allergies involve three to five years of regular injections with increasing amounts of allergen - the substance that triggers an allergy. All the while the immune response slowly changes from a predominance of T-helper 2 (TH2) cells, immune cells responsible for triggering allergic reactions, to T-helper 1 (TH1) cells, which stimulate the production of protective antibodies.

Because nothing is directing allergens to the right place in immune cells, it takes a lot of allergen to generate a response.

Another vaccination breakthrough. Let's hope, these 2 shots will be fully tested and the side-effects will be very minimal. So we will be immune to existing influenza viruses. Ok. What do you think will happen to the virus and to us? The virus will mutate and reappear in more dangerous form. As for us, our immune system will have one less exercise to perform. I don't believe a human can be immune to every diseases. Diseases are keeping our immune system fit. Drugs and vaccinations won't hold for newer variations of viral diseases. This is a vicious circle...

Scientists are on the verge of producing a revolutionary flu vaccine that works against all major types of the disease.

Described as the "holy grail" of flu protection, it would fight off all strains of influenza A, the virus behind both bird flu and the nastiest outbreaks of winter flu.

Two injections could give long-lasting immunity, unlike the current vaccine which has to be administered every year.

A team of researchers led by Irun Cohen of the Weizmann Institute of Science Immunology Department has revealed the molecular mechanism of a vaccine for type 1 diabetes.

The new findings should help amplify the effectiveness of the vaccine, which is currently in advanced stages of clinical trials.

Several years ago, Cohen and colleagues developed a vaccine that arrests the progression of type 1 diabetes in laboratory animals. They had discovered that a particular protein called HSP60, or even only a small particular fragment of it – the peptide designated p277 – is able to shut down the autoimmune response causing this disorder. The vaccine is currently being tested in clinical trials in Europe and the United States, but its precise mechanism has until now been unknown.

Are you wondering who might have called for this research, as I am? What is the real purpose of this number - 62 million dead people? I think, this number is in the news for a simple reason. Fear. Put fear in us. When this pandemic will come (not if, but when), the solution will be a vaccine shot.

BOSTON, Dec. 22 (UPI) -- U.S. and Australian researchers have re-analyzed data from 27 countries on the 1918 pandemic and estimate a similar pandemic might kill 62 million today.

Based on 2004 population data, the researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Queensland in Australia say if a similarly virulent strain of flu virus were to strike today approximately 96 percent of deaths would occur in developing countries.

SINGAPORE, Dec 11 (Reuters) - The H5N1 bird flu virus has undergone many changes since making its first known jump into humans in 1997 and vaccines must be manufactured to fight its major strains, experts said on Monday.

While the virus remains largely a bird disease and does not infect people easily, the scientists at a conference on avian flu and other infectious diseases in Singapore warned against any complacency.

"What's worrying is there were more (human) cases in 2006 than 2004 and 2005. The problem is still with us," Robert Webster of the St Jude Children's Research Hospital in the United States told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference.

The unique nature of HIV has hampered the search for an Aids vaccine and it remains a distant prospect, the world's leading experts say.

When American politicians announced the discovery of HIV in 1984, they predicted that a vaccine and a cure for Aids would be available within five years. It turned out to be a hopelessly optimistic assessment as the immense technical and scientific difficulties unfolded.

Nevertheless, the discovery of the virus led to important developments. The first was a blood test to determine whether someone was HIV positive. A global research effort into the genetics and biology of HIV led to a deeper understanding of the virus's modus operandi. This pointed to ways of sabotaging viral replication in infected patients.

Either of two simple bird flu virus mutations could trigger a deadly pandemic, Japanese scientists warn.

Both mutations already have popped up in humans infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus.

They've been seen in bird flu viruses isolated from two people in Azerbaijan and from one person in Iraq, according to the Japanese scientists. Neither mutation has been seen among the more than 600 H5N1 viruses isolated from birds.

British researchers have developed a vaccine that stimulates the body’s immune system to fight off cancerous cells.

In a clinical trial of 67 colorectal cancer patients, University of Nottingham scientists found that when the vaccines were administered before and after tumour removal surgery, immune cell production increased in 70 per cent of the volunteers.
 
"This is the first vaccine shown to stimulate TNF-alpha – an immune-system protein that is very effective at killing cancer cells," said Lindy Durrant, senior author of the study and professor of cancer immunotherapy at the university.

A novel vaccine designed to treat ragweed allergy significantly improved nasal symptoms for at least 2 years, according to a study presented here at the 52nd annual scientific meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. In addition, patients given the vaccine showed similar trends in symptom relief, regardless of how severely allergic they were to ragweed at baseline.

"We're very excited about this," said Eduardo Martins, MD, vice-president for clinical development at Dynavax Technologies, the San Francisco-based company developing the Tolamba ragweed allergy vaccine. "There have been 14 research trials to date with different dosages, and although they've been small, trial after trial, we've had consistently good results like this for patients across the board."

This randomized placebo-controlled study — the largest to date on this ragweed vaccine — included 462 people aged 18 to 55 years with confirmed ragweed allergy. One group received 6 weekly injections of the vaccine in incremental doses; the other group received injected placebo. Patients were then followed for 2 allergy seasons and asked to electronically report their daily hayfever symptoms, medication use, and related factors.

Mice vaccinated with stem cells have proved to be resistant to lung cancer.

The findings, announced yesterday at a conference in Prague, suggest the possibility of developing embryonic stem-cell vaccines that prevent cancers in humans.

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John Eaton, of the University of Louisville, told the meeting that the vaccinations were 80 to 100 per cent effective in preventing cancer growth in mice after they had been given transplanted tumours. The vaccinations had also proved 60 to 90 per cent effective in mice exposed to the carcinogens that caused lung cancer.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In children with asthma and recurrent respiratory tract infections, nasal spray flu vaccine (sometimes called live attenuated influenza virus vaccine) is well tolerated and more effective than inactivated influenza virus vaccine given as a shot, according to the results of two studies.

In the first study, Dr. William C. Gruber, from Wyeth Research in Pearl River, New York, and colleagues assessed the outcomes of 2220 children with asthma, who were between 6 and 17 years old. They were randomized to receive the live attenuated nasal spray flu vaccine or the inactivated flu vaccine shot during the 2002-2003 influenza season.

The influenza rate in the nasal spray flu vaccine group was 4.1 percent, significantly lower than the 6.2 percent rate noted in the group that got the flu shot. Thus, the nasal spray had a greater relative efficacy of 34.7 percent. The occurrence of asthma flare-ups and other asthma-related episodes did not differ significantly between the two vaccine groups.

The article below raises two questions:

1. Who will actually introduce bird flu to US birds? CDC? Beef industry or Pharma giant?
2. What does Greenpeace think about this?
3. Why US citizens let their administration use fear of the bird-flu as an instrument of influence?

(that would be 3 questions, though) 

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. government has approved the use of firefighting foam to kill chickens quickly if there is an outbreak of deadly bird flu in commercial poultry.

The Agriculture Department says water-based foam can be an alternative to carbon dioxide, which has traditionally been used to quickly kill large quantities of birds.