Vaccination News

The first vaccine against atherosclerosis is not far away in the future, according to Jan Nilsson, professor of Experimental Cardiology at Lunds Universitet in Malmö (Sweden) and EVGN member.

Human clinical trials are likely to begin at the end of next year: they will be aimed at verifying the safety of a preparation, still under investigation in a laboratory model, made of antibodies obtained against selected fragments of oxidized Low Density Lipoproteins, or oxLDLs. LDLs are the major component of the “bad cholesterol”: their accumulation in the arterial wall causes inflammation and is a key factor in the onset of atherosclerosis.

Continue reading "First atherosclerosis vaccine: time for the count-down" »

Vienna (Austria), December 12, 2006 - Intercell AG (VSE, "ICLL") announced   today that it has completed a Phase II trial for its therapeutic Hepatitis C vaccine (IC41), where the vaccine was applied in combination with the standard Hepatitis C therapy (pegylated Interferon and Ribavirin - PegIFN- RBV) to patients infected with genotype 1. In the study, the vaccine  administration was bound to the schedule of the first patient trial  concluded in 2004 where route and frequency was still sub-optimal as  compared to the improved induction of pivotal T cells achieved in recently  concluded optimization trial.

In the current clinical trial, chronically infected Hepatitis C patients receiving standard therapy with PegIFN-RBV were enrolled in Germany, Austria and in the UK. 22 patients who had an early response at week 12 to standard therapy received vaccinations with IC41 as an add-on to standard therapy during the second half of their treatment (week 28 to 48). 

Continue reading "Intercell’s therapeutic Hepatitis C vaccine safe in combination with standard therapy" »

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CytoGenix (OTCBB:CYGX) has demonstrated that a synDNA™ vaccine against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has activity in monkeys. The study, conducted by Drs. Yin Chen and Frédéric Kendirgi at CytoGenix in collaboration with Lauren Hirao and Dr. David Weiner of the University of Pennsylvania, demonstrated that rhesus monkeys injected with a synDNA™ HIV vaccine mounted a significant cellular immune response. The study involved monkeys treated with a synDNA™ vaccine targeting two key viral proteins (gag and env) with interleukin-15 as an adjuvant.

"This observation, the first evidence of activity for a synDNA™ vaccine in non-human primates, is encouraging in that it shows that the synDNA™ vaccine is as effective as the DNA plasmid-based vaccine expressing the same antigen. The advantages of using DNA vaccines can be significantly extended using synDNA™ constructs and warrants further study to determine if the response is sufficient to protect against HIV infection,” stated David B. Weiner, Ph.D., an expert in DNA vaccination and a Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

Continue reading "CytoGenix synDNA™ HIV Vaccine Shows Robust Cellular Immune Response in Monkeys" »

CEDAR HILLS — Kara Davis is a staunch believer that you shouldn't give cocktails to babies, especially if a newborn is injected with one in the arm or foot before ever leaving the hospital.

But while Davis and a growing population of like-minded parents share their concerns out loud and on the Internet, others, including a majority of hospital doctors, say those "cocktails" — also known as vaccines — are crucial to saving lives.

Davis, 53, although not an expert, recently persuaded her son not to allow his newborn to receive a hepatitis B vaccine, which is normally administered within the baby's first 48 hours. Davis did allow her six children to be vaccinated when they were young, but that was before she started doing research that generated her ill feelings toward the common shots.

Continue reading "Vaccination foes needling doctors" »

South Africa's first large-scale HIV vaccine efficacy trial will start next year at five clinical sites around the country.

Representatives from the HIV Vaccine Trials Network and the SA Aids Vaccine Initiative remained tight-lipped on details of the number of subjects and the locations of the trial sites, saying an announcement would be made in January.

But principal investigator at the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre at UCT, Linda-Gail Bekker, said the trials would test the efficacy of a subtype B HIV vaccine on South Africa's predominantly subtype C sufferers.

Each HIV-infected region of the world tends to have a predominant genetic subtype of the virus.

Continue reading "Large-scale HIV vaccine trials to start in SA" »

Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Novartis AG and Sanofi-Aventis SA are among drugmakers searching for new weapons against influenza viruses that evade protection from existing vaccines.

Each year, a new strain of the flu virus circles the globe and kills as many as a half million people annually worldwide. As the virus changes annually into forms that can circumvent the human immune system, scientists are seeking the first universal vaccine against the flu.

To defeat the flu, doctors will need new vaccines with unprecedented power, said Albert Osterhaus, the head of virology at Erasmus University in Rotterdam. Such a vaccine should be able to protect against many strains at once, including the avian form arising in Asia that threatens to become a pandemic deadly to tens of millions of people.

Continue reading "Novartis, Sanofi Seek Universal Vaccine to Fight Mutating Flu" »

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.

Continue reading "Vaccines for all H5N1 flu strains crucial" »

A recently approved project of the sixth EU Framework Programme – MimoVax – is focussing on a new target for an Alzheimer's vaccine. The project, coordinated by the Austrian company Affiris GmbH, centres on the use of immune reactions to combat previously overlooked forms of the beta-amyloid that cause Alzheimer's disease. It is being run by seven partner organisations from three countries and has received an exceptionally positive response from Brussels – as well as Euro 2.4 million in financial support.

The signing of the contract yesterday signalled the start of the active
phase of the EU MimoVax project. The project is part of the sixth EU
Framework Programme and is seeking to develop an Alzheimer's vaccine that targets specific types of beta-amyloid, the causative agent of Alzheimer's disease. 

Continue reading "EU team develops new Alzheimer's vaccine from Austria" »