Dogs Could be the Main Source of Pandemic Influenza In Future

A scientific team from the Center for Research on Influenza Pathogenesis (CRIP), Icahn School of Medicine from Mt. Sinai, New York have found that dogs would be a probable reservoir for a pandemic influenza in future. They proved experimentally that the influenza virus is transmitted through main animal hosts such as birds, poultry, pigs, horses followed by canines and becomes more diverse among the canine group. A genomic study of varied influenza viruses was conducted by obtaining them from canines in Southern China (Guangxi autonomous region) during 2013-2015.

Adolfo García-Sastre, the principal investigator cum director of the Global Health and Emerging Pathogens Institute of this study said, "The majority of pandemics have been associated with pigs as an intermediate host between avian viruses and human hosts. In this study, we identified influenza viruses jumping from pigs into dogs."

Adolfo García-Sastre further stated, "In our study, what we have found is another set of viruses that come from swine that are originally avian in origin, and now they are jumping into dogs and have been reassorted with other viruses in dogs. We now have H1N1, H3N2, and H3N8 in dogs. They are starting to interact with each other. This is very reminiscent of what happened in swine ten years before the H1N1 pandemic."

Dr. García-Sastre suggested that it is high time to think about varied ways to restrict the influenza transmission among the dogs. He said, "The diversity in dogs has increased so much now that the type of combinations of viruses that can be created in dogs represent potential risk for a virus to jump to a dog into a human. There are attempts to restrict the influenza virus in pigs through vaccination and one could consider vaccination for dogs."

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Spider Silk to Boost Your Immunity

Spider Silk to Boost Your Immunity

A team of scientists from different universities across Europe has developed an innovative method of delivering vaccines directly to the white blood cells in order to boost the immune system against life-threatening diseases. They have devised a tough microcapsule using synthetic spider silk that can deliver vaccines directly to T-cells.

This research work was led by Prof. Carole Bourquin, a specialist in cancer immunotherapy from the University of Geneva in Switzerland. She said, "To develop immunotherapeutic drugs effective against cancer, it is essential to generate a significant response of T lymphocytes. As the current vaccines have only limited action on T cells, it is crucial to develop other vaccination procedures to overcome this issue."

Thomas Scheibel, the co-author cum expert on spider silk from the University of Bayreuth in Germany said,"We recreated this special silk in the lab to insert a peptide with vaccine properties; The resulting protein chains are then salted out to form injectable microparticles; The peptide encapsulated by these microparticles was thus delivered directly to the heart of the lymph node cells, boosting the immune response of T cells.”

Synthetic spider silk biopolymers were used since they are resistant to high temperatures of around 100°C so that it can be stored easily. Hence the vaccine delivery would be easier without the need of any adjuvants. Further research would proceed in order to check whether larger antigens can be incorporated in the microcapsules.

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Senators Write to GlaxoSmithKline to Boost Shingrix Supply

As a result of the high demand for GlaxoSmithKline's new shingles vaccine, Shingrix, two U.S. senators have urged the pharma giant to boost inventory levels on facing a shortage in the supplies even after the company established their "fair and equitable" process to ship Shingrix doses.

Senators Write to GlaxoSmithKline to Boost Shingrix Supply

In a letter to GSK’s CEO Emma Walmsley, Senators Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Tina Smith, D-Minn., asking her to look at "what more GSK can do to end the shortage as quickly as possible," and stated that is there seem to be no "contingency plans" to ensuring a sufficient supply for the launch of the vaccine. 

According to senators, patients may not be able to complete the recommended schedule of two doses in six months due to the lack of the vaccine.

GlaxoSmithKline’s Shingrix is seen as a better alternative to Merck's Zostavax, a possible reason for the escalation in its demand. It won approval last fall and days later, CDC vaccine advisers recommended the vaccine above the latter.

A GSK representative remarked that as of May, more than 1.5 million people had received the vaccine and that vaccinations against shingles appeared to be "at a rate many times that of prior years." 

To tackle this increasing need and to ensure patients are able to complete the series, GSK devised a "fair and equitable allocation plan across all customer segments". Until their inventory levels have recovered, the company has implemented order limits as well as delayed "broad consumer education activities" such as TV ads.

Commercially, Shingrix has exceeded expectations even though GSK struggles to keep up with the high demand.  The vaccine generated sales of $150 million in the first quarter, leading experts to estimate revenue of $600 million this year.  

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Treatments for Hepatitis

Hepatitis is defined as liver inflammation usually caused by the hepatitis virus. There are of 5 types of hepatitis:  A, B, C, D and E. At times, our own immune system will attack the liver, which is termed as autoimmune hepatitis disease. Common symptoms include fever, jaundice, fatigue, abdominal pain, dark urine, pale stool, loss of appetite and weight loss.

Treatment options vary according to the type of hepatitis and its condition whether it is acute or chronic.

Hepatitis A

Since Hepatitis A is a short-term illness, it doesn’t require specific treatment. Just bed rest is recommended if there is a great deal of discomfort. In case of vomiting and diarrhea, consult your doctor and be sure to keep up proper hydration and nutrition. Two series of hepatitis A vaccinations between the age group of 12-18 months are available as a preventive measure. For adults, this vaccine can be administered with the hepatitis B vaccine.

Hepatitis B

Hepatitis B is divided into 2 types: acute and chronic. Acute hepatitis B doesn’t require specific treatment. But chronic hepatitis B should be treated with antiviral drugs which must be administered continuously for a few months or even years.

Three series of hepatitis B vaccinations should be administered within the first 6 months of childhood as a preventative measure.

Hepatitis C                                                            

Both acute and chronic types of hepatitis C can be treated with antiviral medications. However, patients who suffer from cirrhosis (liver scarring) could opt for liver transplantation.

At present, there is no vaccine for hepatitis C.

Hepatitis D

There is no antiviral drug available for hepatitis D treatment. 

Hepatitis E

There is no specific treatment for hepatitis E. It mostly cured on its own by taking rest and consuming plenty of fluids with proper diet and avoidance of alcohol.

Autoimmune hepatitis

Corticosteroids are essential for the treatment of autoimmune hepatitis.

This along with various other immune-suppressing drugs can be administered for treatment.

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Personalized Cancer Vaccine Looks Promising in Early Study

A cancer vaccine developed to target a patient's own tumor cells has demonstrated promising results in a new study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

cancer vaccine

Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine and the Abramson Cancer Center, at the University of Pennsylvania, developed the vaccine using dendritic cells (DCs) derived from each patient's own peripheral blood mononuclear cells. These dendritic cells were then exposed to the patient's tumor cells, activated with interferon gamma, and injected into the patient's lymph nodes.

The researchers enrolled 25 platinum-pretreated, immunotherapy-naïve patients with recurrent advanced epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) for the trial. The novel vaccine of tumor-exposed DCs (using autologous oxidized whole-tumor cell lysate pulsed on autologous 5-day-old DCs), was administered every 3 weeks. The number of doses for patients ranged from 2 to 28 (median=9).

Results showed that vaccine-reactive T cells were readily detectable in on-vaccination peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), but were significantly lower or undetectable in prevaccination PBMCs (P=0.001). Patients whose postimmunization T cells recognized autologous tumor cells or DC-presented tumor antigen, demonstrated significantly longer progression-free survival (PFS) on immunotherapy than those whose T cells did not respond to either.

The 2-year overall survival (OS) rate for nonresponders was 25%, compared to 100% in the responder group. To test whether the survival results were related to the vaccine, researchers stimulated T cells from each patient collected before or after the immunotherapy, using staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB). Results showed a very similar T cell response to SEB between vaccine responders and nonresponders at baseline and after immunotherapy, which the researchers write, suggests "that perhaps the therapy changed the natural course of the disease".

A 46-year old patient who started the trial with stage 4 ovarian cancer and had had 5 previous courses of chemotherapy remained disease-free for 5 years after completing treatment with her personalized vaccine. She had received 28 doses of vaccine over a 2-year period. 

“This vaccine appears to be safe for patients, and elicits a broad anti-tumor immunity – we think it warrants further testing in larger clinical trials,” said lead author Janos L. Tanyi, MD, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Penn Medicine.

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Discovery of Novel Single Shot Nano Polio Vaccine

Nano Polio Vaccine

It takes up to 3-4 doses of polio vaccination to build up immunity against the disease. Hence completion of all doses seems to be a herculean task, especially in remote areas.

A research team from MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research in Cambridge, US discovered a novel one-shot nano polio vaccine to eradicate polio. The inactivated polio vaccine was encapsulated in a biodegradable polymer named as PLGA. It degrades after a certain period of time, whereby the research team can control when the vaccine is out. The initial release would be at the time of injection and the second one would be after 25 days.

Dr. Ana Jaklenec, research scientist from MIT said, “Having a one-shot vaccine that can elicit full protection could be very valuable in being able to achieve eradication; Children in some of these hard-to-reach developing world locations tend to not get the full series of shots necessary for protection. The goal is to ensure that everyone globally is immunized.”

The vaccine will proceed for clinical trials soon and the team is also planning to apply the same strategy in order to control other dreadful diseases such as HIV and Ebola.

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Imutex Universal FLU Vaccine Reaching Phase 3

Numerous problems with seasonal flu shots have been reported everywhere. Now U.K. biotech Imutex is on the verge to make the next big advance for flu vaccine technology, after a great span of 14 years of work. The company reported the phase 2b clinical trial result, where the universal flu shot, FLU-v has boosted immune responses with low infection rates. Now they are heading towards phase 3 testing. Imutex is the joint venture between drug development organization SEEK Group and clinical research specialist hVIVO.

In phase 2b clinical trial work, FLU-v met its goal of boosting T-cell immune response at 42 days and 180 days after vaccination. The infection rate came down by meeting a secondary endpoint of boosting antibodies in vaccinated patients. Thus, this single adjuvant dose is considered as the "most immunological and efficient." 

U.S. and European Authorities have funded the phase 2 work and they believe that the vaccine could be made available within two years. 

This ‘universal’ shot vaccine is designed to protect against all influenza A and influenza B strains in humans and animals. Hence it is believed that FLU-v could generate $10 billion to $20 billion per year by targeting around 7 billion people. At present, the negotiations of Imutex with other big pharma companies are ongoing.

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V920 Vaccination Against Ebola Outbreak Proves a Great Success

In the latest Ebola outbreak, a total of 61 cases were recorded and 28 lives were claimed in the Congo region. But now the World Health Organization has reported that the spread of this Ebola outbreak has "largely been contained" after the success of Merck's late-stage vaccination campaign for more than a month. WHO further reported that in spite of this progress, "there should be no room for laxity and complacency until the outbreak is controlled." This vaccination is targeted at health professionals and the victims of this Ebola virus, showing 100% efficacy.

The Ebola vaccine named V920 was originally developed by scientists from the Public Health Agency of Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory. Later, the vaccine was licensed to a subsidiary company of NewLink Genetics. When the Ebola outbreak in 2014 claimed numerous lives, Merck accelerated the vaccine’s development by licensing it from NewLink Genetics.

When the Ebola outbreak in the last year claimed a further 4 lives, the vaccine was not effectively addressing the threat. After that incident, governments, nonprofits and pharma companies joined together to form an independent group named the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.  This group aimed to prepare for effective epidemics in advance. MERS-CoV, the Nipah virus and Lassa virus were their first targets. After the successful vaccination campaign, Merck declared that it would seek approval for late-stage Ebola vaccine V920 this year. 

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HPV Vaccination for Both Girls & Boys

Government advisors are recommending that the national HPV immunization programme in England should include both boys and girls. The Joint Committee of Vaccinations and Immunisations (JCVI) believes that this would be a cost-effective option for preventing HPV-related diseases in boys and further improves public health.

HPV is a common sexually transmitted infection, where around 70-80 percent of sexually active people get infected at some point. Mostly, the virus passes through the body without causing any serious damage, but at times, HPV can lead to genital warts or cancer.

Giampiero Favato, the professor from Kingston University said, “Only vaccinating girls have been putting boys and men at risk; Once England follows suit, almost 400,000 boys a year in the UK will be protected against the virus; This will make a significant impact on the future public health of UK citizens."

The Royal Society for Public Health also welcomed the decision as “a victory for the public’s health”.

Shirley Cramer, the Chief executive said, “Boys have been left insufficiently protected against HPV for too long and it is good news that the UK is following in the footsteps of the other 20 countries already vaccinating boys against HPV; It is estimated that HPV causes up to 5% of all cancers and, with the NHS under pressure, the value of the prevention of ill-health is only increasing. The government and vaccine manufacturers should aim to roll the immunization programme out to all boys as soon as possible.” 

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