Medical Service Provider, Health Care Tips, Health Services, Health Guide: Vaccine

Thursday, 24 October 2013

AIDS Virus in Cats Might Help Human Vaccine Effort, Study Hints

THURSDAY, Oct. 3 (HealthDay News) -- Cats may hold a key to developing an HIV vaccine for people, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that a protein from the virus that causes AIDS in cats triggered an immune response in blood from HIV-infected people. The virus that causes AIDS in people is called the human immunodeficiency virus while the one that affects cats is called the feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV).

The findings, reported in the October issue of the Journal of Virology suggest that further research with FIV could lead to an HIV vaccine for people, the University of Florida and University of California, San Francisco investigators said.

"One major reason why there has been no successful HIV vaccine to date is that we do not know which parts of HIV to combine to produce the most effective vaccine," study corresponding author Janet Yamamoto, a professor of retroviral immunology at the UF College of Veterinary Medicine, said in a university news release.

In previous studies, scientists have combined various whole HIV proteins as vaccine ingredients, but none worked well enough to be used as a commercial vaccine, she explained.

"Surprisingly, we have found that certain peptides of the feline AIDS virus can work exceptionally well at producing human T-cells that fight against HIV," Yamamoto said. T-cells are immune system cells that attack cells infected with viruses.

The FIV protein that triggered the human T-cell response is present in multiple HIV-like viruses in different animal species, she said. By studying FIV, the researchers believe that it may be possible to identify regions of HIV that might prove useful targets for a vaccine.

One researcher emphasized that different viruses affect people and cats.

"We want to stress that our findings do not mean that the feline AIDS virus infects humans, but rather that the cat virus resembles the human virus sufficiently so that this cross-reaction can be observed," study co-author Dr. Jay Levy, a professor of medicine at UCSF, said in the news release.

-- Robert Preidt MedicalNews
Copyright © 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCE: University of Florida, news release

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Tuesday, 25 June 2013

Egg-Free Flu Vaccine Ready for Flu Season

By Todd Neale, Senior Staff Writer, MedPage Today

A new trivalent recombinant influenza vaccine has been added to the 2013-2014 flu recommendations to provide an immunization option for people with a history of allergic reactions to eggs.

Flublok is made using recombinant DNA technology and contains hemagglutinin produced in an insect cell line. Approved by the FDA in January, it is the only completely egg-free flu vaccine available, prompting the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) to add it to the guidance for the upcoming season at one of its regular meetings at CDC headquarters in Atlanta.

According to the previous algorithm for determining how people with egg allergies should be vaccinated, those who had a history of only hives upon exposure to egg were recommended to get inactivated influenza vaccine followed by an observation period of at least 30 minutes after administration to watch for reactions.

And those who had a history of some other reaction aside from hives -- such as cardiovascular changes, respiratory distress, gastrointestinal symptoms, and reactions requiring epinephrine or emergency medical attention -- were recommended to see a physician with expertise in management of allergic conditions for further evaluation.

For the upcoming season -- following a unanimous vote by ACIP -- Flublok (abbreviated RIV3) will be listed as an alternative in both scenarios, assuming the individual falls within the approved age range of 18 to 49.

A reference to RIV3 also will be made in added language referring to people who do not have a history of egg allergy but who may be at risk based on previously performed allergy testing. In that case, "consultation with a physician with expertise in the management of allergic conditions should be obtained prior to vaccination" or, if age appropriate, RIV3 can be given.

At the last meeting of ACIP in February, the committee approved the addition of four recently approved flu vaccines to the guidance for the 2013-2014 season. On Thursday, Sanofi Pasteur's Fluzone Quadrivalent -- approved by the FDA earlier this month -- was added, as well. It is the only quadrivalent flu vaccine approved for use in children younger than 2.

All of the quadrivalent vaccines will protect against two A strains -- H1N1 and H3N2 -- and two B strains -- one from the Yamagata lineage and one from the Victoria lineage.

One of the ACIP members, Tamera Coyne-Beasley, MD, MPH, reported that her institution, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, receives clinical trial funding from Merck. The other committee members reported that they had no conflicts of interest.

Todd Neale

Senior Staff Writer

Todd Neale, MedPage Today Staff Writer, got his start in journalism at Audubon Magazine and made a stop in directory publishing before landing at MedPage Today. He received a B.S. in biology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and an M.A. in journalism from the Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting program at New York University.