HIV Vaccine Awareness Day 2014

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Coronavirus and Vaccine Development

Coronavirus Vaccine Update: In addition to VBI Vaccines Inc. (Ottawa, Canada), the following firms are as of 27 March 2020 beginning Phase 1 testing Phase I vaccine candidates   Company:  Moderna Vaccine candidate:  mRNA-1273 Details:  Moderna is the Massachusetts-based biotech company behind mRNA-1273, a vaccine candidate developed using prior studies of related coronaviruses, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). Study Design:  A Phase 1, open-label, dose-ranging clinical trial of 45 healthy participants between 18-55 years old Institution:   Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute Status:  Recruiting completed 19 March 2020 ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:   NCT04283461 Funding:  NIAID   Company:  CanSino Biologics Vaccine candidate:  Ad5-nCoV Details:  China’s CanSino Biologics has developed a recombinant novel coronavirus vaccine that incorporates...
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A message for the anti-vaccine campaigners

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The resurgence of the measles epidemic, largely blamed on parents who have not vaccinated their kids, has brought to light, the fear that vaccines can cause harm. There need not be a debate on whether one should be vaccinated or not. It is a fact that vaccines have saved lives in several countries over the years. The scientific community along with academics and the pharmaceutical industry should partner up with people at the community level and educate them on the benefits of being vaccinated. The recent failure of the flu vaccine to confer protection and the adverse side effects of Gardasil vaccine against HPV has only perpetuated the idea that vaccines do not benefit people but only line the pockets of the rich.   Similar to the campaign started against the tobacco industry using images of tobacco users suffering from various cancers, a campaign for use of vaccines should be initiated. Images of patients suffering from various vaccine-preventable diseases s...
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Anti-HIV therapy: IgG3 is the new kid on the block !

In a fantastic new paper by Chung et al., (2014) that accompanied the paper described in my previous Blog by Yates et al., (2014), the role played by IgG3 has been described very elegantly in the context of 2 HIV vaccines-RV144 and VAX003. Chung et al., show how IgG3 might be able to fight HIV infection in the absence of viral neutralization. Background: RV144: ALVAC-HIVvCP1521 prime and recombinant gp120 AIDSVAX B/E boose                      VAX003: AIDSVAX B/E bivalent rgp120 given with alum in 7 doses Results: * RV144 elicited a polyfunctional antibody response associated with the selective induction of IgG3 antibodies. * VAX003 elicited a monofunctional antibody response characterized by selection of the functionally inert IgG4 antibody subclass, likely due to repeated administration of gp120 protein vaccination which decreased IgG3 subclass levels. *RV144 induced both IgG1 and IgG3 antibodies targeting the V2 crown,...
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