Vaccine Guru

While the world is trying to recover from the scandal that plagued the vaccine field due to the infamous link to autism (read Andrew Wakefield's story), the issue is still in the minds of moms and dads everywhere. While hopefully, the link between MMR vaccines and autism stays debunked at least in the scientific world where data alone triumphs, there have been issues with vaccines and will continue to do so. Nothing is ever perfect. Between June 2006 and March 2014, approximately 67 million doses of HPV vaccines were distributed and the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) received approximately 25,000 adverse event reports occurring in girls and women who received HPV vaccines and of these, 92% were classified as 'non-serious', suggesting 2000 cases were serious. Should we be rethinking vaccine formulations? In another controversial decision, the journal Translational Neurodegeneration  (paper by Brian Hooker) removed a paper that was published, citing serio

Apparently, there is not enough experimental therapeutic drug (ZMapp) to go around treating everyone infected by Ebola virus. Of 6 patients who have been treated, 2 have recovered and headed home. The 6 are Dr Brantly, Ms Writebol, Fr. Miguel Pajares (deceased), Dr Zukunis Ireland, Dr Abraham Borbor (deceased) and Dr Aroh Cosmos Izchukwu. While the fate of the other survivors are not known yet, the amazing recovery of Dr Brantly ( Just came to know through Samaritan's Purse that Dr Brantly had previous to ZMapp treatment, also  received serum from a 14 year old survivor of Ebola)  and Ms Writebol, pushed global interest in these therapeutic drugs. It also raised the profile of Canadian scientists (Dr Gary Kobinger) who are involved in developing this treatment.  The drug that is being used here is a cocktail of 3 antibodies to Zaire Ebola virus surface glycoproteins. These humanized monoclonal antibodies combine the best components of MB-003 aka Mapp [1 mAb from MB-003] and ZMa

http://mosaicscience.com/story/francoise-barre-sinoussi An interesting article that is full of life, yet poignant, considering the lives lost to the disease and the impact of a discovery on the strained relationships between scientists. A terrific article describing the life and work of Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, the co-discoverer of the HIV virus.

A recent paper by a multi-center group looking into the famous "31.2% vaccine efficacy" study (RV144 trial) shows interesting features associated with this protection against HIV-1. Shuying Li looked at vaccine-induced Fc receptor-mediated antibody function and in this paper, show that a single nucleotide polymorphism in the FcR-encoding genes is strongly associated with protection. Individuals with a  SNP (rs114945036) carrying CC in this SNP had a vaccine efficacy of 15% while those with a CT or TT had a vaccine efficacy of 91% against HIV-1 subtype CRF01_AE with a lysine at position 169 (169K) in the V2 loop. RV144 is a treasure trove of discoveries. The world is eagerly waiting for more data and a cure! This has been tweeted: Joe L Sosa Jr  ‏ @ TweetSosa     21m In Study of HIV Vaccine Trial Subjects, Genotype Defines Subsets with Strong and Weak Response http:// dlvr.it/6gQWts

The virus that was discovered in the late 70s in the Belgian Congo has now struck fear and panic in West Africa. The therapy that is widely believed to cure the patient infected with Ebola virus is plantibody: Essentially, the gene encoding the antibody is genetically expressed as a protein in the humble tobacco plant. Several companies are working on producing recombinant proteins in Plants-PlantForm in Canada and the now famous Zapp biotech company in the US. Ebola is a scary pathogen because mortality is rapid and almost certain. Ebola, curiously, also uses Tim-3 on cells to enter and cause pathogenicity. Interestingly, Tim-3 is highly expressed in T cells that are exhausted in HIV-1 disease. Does this mean that HIV-1 patients who express higher levels of Tim-3 have a higher chance of getting infected with Ebola. Now that is scary indeed! Whether the cell types that express Tim-3 are infected by HIV-1 needs to be investigated!