Vaccine Weekly articles from February 2003

Vaccine Weekly archives from February 2003

Combining dendritic cells and CpG oligodeoxynucleotides cures colon cancer in mice.
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Maria G. Essig, MS, ELS, senior medical writer - Large murine colon carcinoma tumors were eliminated in mice co-injected with mature antigen-pulsed dendritic cells (DCs) and CpG oligodeoxynucleotides...

Apical membrane antigen 1 protects monkeys against malaria.
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Maria G. Essig, MS, ELS, senior medical writer - Monkeys immunized with a vaccine containing Plasmodium falciparum apical membrane antigen 1 (AMA1) were protected against blood-stage malaria,...

Report addresses reduction of influenza burden in children.
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- "Epidemiologic studies indicate that children with certain chronic conditions, such as asthma, and otherwise healthy children younger than 24 months are hospitalized for influenza and its complications...

Serine repeat antigen genes essential for blood-stage parasite growth.
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to a study from Australia, "The Plasmodium falciparum serine repeat antigen (SERA) has shown considerable promise as a blood stage vaccine for the control of malaria. A related protein,...

Serine repeat antigen-based immunization shows promise.
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to a study from Japan, "The Plasmodium falciparum serine repeat antigen (SERA) is one of the blood stage malaria vaccine candidates. The malaria genome project has revealed that SERA is a...

Pertussis persists despite widespread vaccination programs.
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to a study from an international group of researchers, "Bordetella pertussis continues to circulate even in populations where a high vaccine coverage of infants and children is achieved....

Efficacy of edible vaccines must be tested by eating.
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to recent research from The Netherlands, "To evaluate whether vaccine administration via intragastric gavage is indicative for the outcome of edible vaccines, mice were orally immunized with...

Company announces new developments on ricin toxin vaccine.
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- DOR BioPharma, Inc., announced that it has executed an exclusive option with the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UT Southwestern) in Dallas to license patent applications pending in the...

New model of yeast pathogenesis developed.
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to researchers in the United States, "We found that the well-studied nematode Caenorhabditis elegans can use various yeasts, including Cryptococcus laurentii and Cryptococcus kuetzingii, as a...

Mannose-binding lectin genotype determines lectin levels and function.
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to recent research from Australia, "The mannose-binding lectin (MBL) pathway of complement activation is an important component of innate host defense. Numerous studies have described...

Former WebMD executive producer joins NewsRx.
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A former WebMD executive producer and medical editor has joined Atlanta-based NewsRx, along with three board-certified editors. Dominique Walton Brooks, MD, with WebMD until 2001, will serve as...

Dendritic cell vaccine shows promise against EBV-positive nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to a team of researchers from Taiwan, the People's Republic of China, and England, "Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), a common neoplasm in Southeast Asia, is EBV-positive and expresses a limited...

Dual-specific T cells knock out tumors with double punch.
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Immune system cells genetically redesigned to recognize immunogen show promise for treating cancer, United States government researchers indicate. According to a new study, "an effective immune...

Exclusive rights to develop cancer targets acquired.
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Eos Biotechnology and Aventis Pasteur announced that a 2-year collaboration to identify unique cancer vaccine targets has resulted in Aventis Pasteur exercising its options to develop up to five of...

Pseudokinase domain required for suppression of tyrosine kinases.
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to recent research from Finland, "Janus (Jak) tyrosine kinases contain a tyrosine kinase (JH1) domain adjacent to a catalytically inactive pseudokinase domain (JH2). The JH2 domain has been...

Human cytomegalovirus genomes highly divergent.(Brief Article)
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to a study from Italy, "The low-passage Toledo strain of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) and fresh clinical HCMV isolates have been reported to share the capacity to propagate efficiently in...

Vaccine against VEGF receptor prevents angiogenesis and tumor growth.
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A new DNA vaccine can prevent angiogenesis and the growth of human tumors, researchers say. "Tumor cells are elusive targets for immunotherapy due to their heterogeneity and genetic instability....

Researchers investigate gene expression during maturation of immature dendritic cells.
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to recent research from Japan, "Dendritic cells (DCs) are the most important antigen-presenting cells. Many recent studies have compared the function of immature DCs (iDCs) and mature DCs...

Cost-precision ratios of strategies for antibody level measurement evaluated.
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to recent research from Sweden, "Standardization and design of optimally reproducible strategies for the measurement of serum antibody levels by ELISA can present significant problems. In...

Vero cell-derived inactivated Japanese encephalitis vaccine developed.
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to recent research from Japan, "We have established a manufacturing system for a Vero cell-derived inactivated Japanese encephalitis vaccine at a 500:1 scale. The production system involves...

Novel molecular adjuvant improves anti-Env antibody responses.
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Michael Greer, senior medical writer - A novel molecular adjuvant can improve the performance of DNA-based HIV vaccines, researchers in North Carolina report. "DNA vaccines expressing the...

Glial cells play a role in defense against herpesvirus infections.
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to recent research from the United States, "Glial cells can respond to herpesvirus infections through the production of cytokines and chemokines. Although specific interactions between...

Autoreactive B cells involved in autoantibody response to mouse lysozyme.
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to recent research from Japan, "We previously found that autoantibodies against mouse lysozyme (ML) were strongly induced in normal BALB/c mice when immunized with mutant ML that has triple...

DC-SIGN is an efficient target for delivery of T cell epitopes for MHC class II presentation.
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to a study from Norway, "In vaccine development, a major objective is to induce strong, specific T cell responses. This might be obtained by targeting antigen to cell surface molecules that...

Interleukin-6 involvement does not always include an antibody response.
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- "In the present study, we examined the effect of anti-IL-6 receptor antibody (MR16-1) on humoral and cellular immune responses in mice. MR16-1 did not affect antigen-specific antibody production in...

Major Japanese cedar pollen antigens retain immunogenicity in a linked peptide.
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- "It has been demonstrated in detail that administration of a dominant T-cell determinant to animals induces activation or immunological tolerance of T cells. However, it has not been determined whether...

Microbial entry through caveolae investigated.
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to a study from the United States, "Caveolae and lipid rafts are increasingly being recognized as a significant portal of entry into host cells for a wide variety of pathogenic microorganisms....

Na,K-ATPase beta 3 subunit suppresses T and B lymphocyte activation.
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- "In order to identify new molecules involved in regulation of T cell proliferation, we generated various monoclonal antibodies (mAb) by immunization of mice with the T cell line Molt4. We found one mAb...

Research center study identifies specific gene required for long-term immunity.
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Scientists at the Emory Vaccine Research Center show that a gene called SAP is required to generate long-term immunity. By measuring the immune responses of "knockout" mice genetically engineered...

Researchers discuss implications of emerging genomic data.(Brief Article)
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to a study from Canada, "Instead of being greeted as supporting the growing corpus of immunological theory, recent advances in the bioinformatic analysis of genomes have often surprised the...

Vaccine makers' protection will be eliminated, Republicans say.
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Republicans say they will reverse several favors to special interests in the Homeland Security law, including a much-criticized provision to limit lawsuits against vaccine makers. House and Senate...

Presence of certain tumor markers could signal best results for vaccine.
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Scientists at the John Wayne Cancer Institute (JWCI) in Santa Monica, California, have found a panel of molecular markers that could signal which patients might have the best results following...

Regulatory T cells suppress ability to withstand central nervous system injury.
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- "The ability of rats or mice to withstand the consequences of injury to myelinated axons in the CNS was previously shown to depend on the ability to manifest a T cell-mediated protective immune...

Vaccines being developed to treat CNS diseases.(Brief Article)
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers in the United States report, "The spectrum of inflammatory diseases of the central nervous system has been steadily expanding from classical autoimmune disorders such as multiple sclerosis...

Continuing use of mercury in vaccines questioned.(Brief Article)
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Parents and advocates met recently on Capitol Hill to ask the nation's leaders and pharmaceutical companies to stop using the mercury preservative thimerosal in all vaccines, to inform Americans about...

Immune response against scorpion venom produced.(Brief Article)
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to recent research from France, "Scorpion neurotoxins acting on ion channels share some structural features but differ in antigenic and immunogenic properties. They are highly structured...

CHO cell clustering does not correlate with histamine-sensitization for pertussis toxin.(Brief Article)
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to a study from Japan, "Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell clustering test failed to detect a reversion to pertussis toxin (PT) toxicity of a commercial diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (DtaP)...

Development of real-time fluorescence PCR assay to detect diphtheria toxin gene.(Brief Article)
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers from the United States report the development and evaluation of "a real-time fluorescence PCR assay for detecting the A and B subunits of diphtheria toxin (tox) gene. When 23 toxigenic...

Oral vaccines used to tackle intestinal illnesses.(Brief Article)
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- By using mouse models, E.U.-funded DEPROHEALTH-project has demonstrated that some Lactobacillus strains can have a beneficial effect on intestinal inflammations and infections. The target disease...

Apoptosis induced by infection with Gilchrist strain of rubella virus.(Brief Article)
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to recent research from Argentina, "Apoptosis is an active process of cellular self-destruction, which can be initiated in response to several stimuli such as toxic substances, hormones,...

Administration says those who give, get vaccine not liable for damages.(Brief Article)
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Any health care workers or others vaccinated against smallpox who accidentally infect someone close to them will not be liable for damages, the Bush administration has decided. The administration...

Germany to stockpile vaccine.(Brief Article)
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Germany plans to stockpile enough smallpox vaccine by the end of the year to protect its entire population of 82 million from a terrorist attack with the virus, the government says. The government...

Health care unions want delay on vaccinations.
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Citing safety concerns, America's two largest health care unions want a delay in smallpox vaccinations. But the Bush administration said it will move ahead as planned, with inoculations set to begin in...

Science panel urges clear warnings, patience with inoculation.(Brief Article)
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The Bush administration should tell health workers being offered the smallpox vaccine that it carries real risks and they are likely to receive only minimal compensation if they are injured, scientific...

Donor immunization may lower pneumococcal infection risk.(Brief Article)
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Michael Greer, senior medical writer - Immunization of hematopoietic stem cell donors may help prevent pneumococcal infections in transplant recipients, according to researchers in the United States....

Strategy for vaccine shows promise.(Brief Article)
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers from Auburn University have developed a strategy that may lead to an effective vaccine against a common cause of ulcers. Helicobacter pylori bacteria were first isolated in the early...

Enhancing alpha-helicity HIV peptide increases affinity for human monoclonal antibody 2F5.(Brief Article)
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- "The synthetic peptide DP178, derived from the carboxyl-terminal heptad repeat region of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 GP41 protein is a potent inhibitor of viral-mediated fusion and contains the...

Novel promoter in human papillomavirus type 18 genome found.(Brief Article)
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- "Northern blot and RT-PCR analyses indicated that the human papillomavirus E4 open reading frame is expressed in HeLa cells," researchers in the United States report. "Because integration at the E1...

O-linked glycopeptide epitope containing carbohydrate side-chains characterized.(Brief Article)
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to a study from the United States, "To answer the question whether or not T cells to immunodominant protein fragments recognize glycosylated antigens, we synthesized a series of glycopeptides...

Rotavirus particles survive tropical temperatures for more than 2 months.(Brief Article)
February 5, 2003... 2003 FEB 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- "Typing and in vitro cultivation of rotavirus-positive human stool samples stored unintentionally at ambient tropical temperatures for 2 1/2 months showed that rotavirus is stable and may still be...

Carbohydrate-based particles are better adjuvant than alum for allergy vaccines.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2003... 2003 FEB 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Maria G. Essig, MS, ELS, senior medical writer - Carbohydrate-based particles (CBP) acted as an effective adjuvant for the major timothy grass pollen allergen without causing the granulomatous...

Low interleukin-4 levels predict failure of antibiotics for H. pylori.
February 12, 2003... 2003 FEB 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Maria G. Essig, MS, ELS, senior medical writer - Patients with an impaired mucosal immune response fail treatment for Helicobacter pylori infection significantly more often than similar patients...

Adenovirus vectors effectively deliver MHC class I and II antigens.
February 12, 2003... 2003 FEB 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- "Dendritic cells (DCs) are highly specialised antigen-presenting cells (APCs) that are essential for the initiation and modulation of T cell-mediated immune responses," according to recent research...

Researcher discusses current issues with influenza vaccination in egg allergy.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2003... 2003 FEB 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to recent research from the United States, "Influenza infection, with its accompanying morbidity and mortality, represents a major public health concern yearly to the elderly and high-risk...

Antibody levels remain high in macaques given Quil A-adjuvanted measles vaccine.
February 12, 2003... 2003 FEB 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to a study from the Netherlands, "Quil A-based candidate measles vaccines have been shown to be immunogenic and protective in cotton rats and macaques. Here we studied the longevity of...

Combining DPT and hepatitis B vaccine may be cost-effective in Thailand.
February 12, 2003... 2003 FEB 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to a study from Australia and Thailand, "Combined vaccines have been advocated as an efficient method of pediatric vaccine delivery. This study examined the performance and cost implications...

Rabies treatment done within a day of injury is effective.
February 12, 2003... 2003 FEB 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Treating bites from animals suspected to be rabid is effective when done within a day of the bite, according to a group of researchers from Thailand. "The present study sought to determine whether...

AIDS vaccine developed at Emory, NIH moves to clinical trials.
February 12, 2003... 2003 FEB 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A vaccine aimed against AIDS, developed at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center of Emory University, the Emory Vaccine Center, and the Laboratory of Viral Diseases at the National Institute of...

Interleukin 21 prevents IgE production in mice.
February 12, 2003... 2003 FEB 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to a study from Japan and the United States, "Interleukin 21 (IL-21) has recently been identified as a multifunctional cytokine that induces the proliferation of T cells and B cells and...

A-beta antibodies may prevent Alzheimer disease plaque formation.
February 12, 2003... 2003 FEB 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to recent research from the United States, "Previous studies have shown that in various mouse models of Alzheimer's disease (AD), amyloid beta-protein (A-beta) antibodies generated by A-beta...

Denmark, which hasn't pledged troops for Iraq, giving some vaccine.
February 12, 2003... 2003 FEB 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Denmark's military started issuing anthrax vaccine to some of its troops, although the NATO member country hasn't committed any troops for possible military action in Iraq. Surgeon Gen....

Colonization required for newborn piglets to make serum antibodies.
February 12, 2003... 2003 FEB 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Only those newborn piglets that colonized with a benign or enterohemorrhagic strain of Escherichia coli produced antigen-antibodies, according to researchers in the United States. ...

Oral anthrax and plague vaccine to be developed for U.S. Department of Defense.
February 12, 2003... 2003 FEB 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Avant Immunotherapeutics, Inc. (AVAN) has been awarded a subcontract to develop for the U.S. Department of Defense an oral combination vaccine against anthrax and plague using Avant's proprietary...

Society gains economic advantages from vaccinating prisoners.
February 12, 2003... 2003 FEB 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Financial resources allocated towards vaccinating prisoners against hepatitis B virus infection will be cost-effective in the long run, researchers suggest. "The purpose of this paper is to...

E. coli-expressed zona pellucida glycoproteins have contraceptive properties.
February 12, 2003... 2003 FEB 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- "In order to evaluate the immunocontraceptive potential of zona pellucida (ZP) glycoproteins, recombinant bonnet monkey (Macaca radiata) zona pellucida glycoprotein-1 (r-bmZP1) and -2 (r-bmZP2) were...

Subclinical Japanese encephalitis infection high in vaccinated populations.
February 12, 2003... 2003 FEB 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to recent research from Japan, "Japanese encephalitis (JE) virus is characterized as a virus that produces a large number of subclinical infections. In this report, we estimated a ratio of...

Combined intrarectal/intradermal inoculation boosts M. bovis-based vaccine efficacy.
February 12, 2003... 2003 FEB 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers in Japan have identified a method for improving the protection afforded by Mycobacterium bovis bacillus Calmette-Guerin (rBCG)-based HIV vaccines. An effective rBCG-based vaccine will...

Synthetic AIDS vaccine targets HIV coreceptors.
February 12, 2003... 2003 FEB 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- "A class of synthetic peptide immunogens for the cell surface HIV receptor complex has been developed to elicit antibodies that block viral entry by inhibiting gp120-CD4 interaction," according to...

Virion-based vaccine protects animals against disease.
February 12, 2003... 2003 FEB 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Michael Greer, senior medical writer - A DNA vaccine containing viral particles prevents many symptoms of infection in primates exposed to the simian version of HIV (SIV), researchers in Maryland...

Protection against H. pylori is IL-12-dependent and mediated by Th1 cells.
February 12, 2003... 2003 FEB 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- "The regulatory roles of Th1 and Th2 cells in immune protection against Helicobacter infection are not clearly understood. In this study, we report that a primary H. pylori infection can be...

Cases decrease in Southern California.
February 12, 2003... 2003 FEB 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The widespread vaccination of children is being credited for a dramatic drop in cases of hepatitis A in Southern California and much of the West. The vaccine for the most common liver disease is...

Tetanus toxoid enhances hepatitis B vaccine response.
February 12, 2003... 2003 FEB 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Scientists have learned that tetanus toxoid enhances the response to hepatitis B virus vaccine in previous nonresponders. According to a study from Turkey, "in this prospective study, our aim was...

Taiwan study looks at long-term effects of hepatitis B vaccine.
February 12, 2003... 2003 FEB 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers in Taiwan have investigated the long-term effects of hepatitis B vaccine and booster shots among adolescents. "The long-term immunogenicity of universal hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccine...

Adenoviral vector encoding for hepatitis C virus molecule prevents infection.
February 12, 2003... 2003 FEB 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A recombinant vaccine comprised of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) NS3 protein and an adenoviral vector has induced immune response in animal models. According to a study from Spain, "cellular immune...

Nippostrongylus brasiliensis induces antigen-specific immune response.
February 12, 2003... 2003 FEB 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to recent research from the United States, "Th2 immune responses to a number of infectious pathogens are dependent on B7-1/B7-2 costimulatory molecule interactions. We have now examined the...

An anthroposophic lifestyle affects intestinal microflora in infancy.
February 12, 2003... 2003 FEB 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to a study from Sweden, "The intestinal flora is considered to have an impact on the development of the immune system. In the anthroposophic lifestyle, a diet comprising vegetables...

Astrocytes act as antigen-presenting cells in autoimmune encephalomyelitis.
February 12, 2003... 2003 FEB 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- "The role of the MHC class II transactivator (CIITA) in antigen presentation by astrocytes and susceptibility to experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) was examined using CIITA-deficient mice...

HLA-DP4 defines a new supertype of peptide-binding specificity.
February 12, 2003... 2003 FEB 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to recent research from France, "Among HLA-DP specificities, HLA-DP4 specificity involves at least two molecules, HLA-DPA1*0103/DPBI*0401 (DP401) and HLA-DPA1*0103/DPB1*0402 (DP402), which...

Weak B cell receptor engagement can stimulate IgM immune response.
February 12, 2003... 2003 FEB 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to a study from Japan, "The quasi-monoclonal mouse has limited B cell diversity, whose major (approximately 80%) B cell antigen receptors are comprised of the knockin V[subscript]H 17.2.25...

Evolutionary phage peptide library yields Cryptococcus vaccine.
February 12, 2003... 2003 FEB 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- "Cryptococcus neoformans causes a life-threatening meningoencephalitis in a significant percentage of AIDS patients," according to a study from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City....

Meningococcal meningitis W135 outbreaks likely in Burkina Faso.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2003... 2003 FEB 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Meningococcal meningitis outbreaks could exact a heavy toll in Burkino Faso unless vaccine stocks there are quickly updated, researchers in Ghana warn. "Burkina Faso lies within the African...

Vaccination is best strategy against influenza.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2003... 2003 FEB 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to recent research from the United States, "Influenza remains an important cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States. Although signs and symptoms of individual influenza cases...

BCG improves immune response to a candidate vaccine for leishmaniasis.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2003... 2003 FEB 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Adding bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) to booster injections of vaccines against the parasitic disease leishmaniasis could improve vaccine effectiveness, according to a group of researchers from Iran and...

DNA vaccine with MIDGE vectors protects against leishmaniasis in mice.
February 12, 2003... 2003 FEB 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to a study from Spain, "Immunization protocols based on priming with plasmid DNA and boosting with recombinants of vaccinia virus (rVV) encoding the same antigen offer great promise for the...