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The current status of phage therapy approaches is reviewed and possible hurdles to a practical medical application of bacteriophages in Western countries are identified as discussed at a recent EMBO meeting on “Viruses of Microbes” in Brussels. In view of the growing antibiotic resistance crisis, a coordinated effort by the public health sector is needed to evaluate the potential of phage therapy as an adjunct to antibiotics. T4 coliphage picture by Russell Kightley Media
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The RV144 ‘Thai trial’ of an HIV vaccine candidate resulted in an unprecedented 31% protection rate among participants – a result that sparked something of a revival in the HIV vaccine field. Despite this encouraging result, the protection rate was still considered to be too low for the vaccine to be useful. Since then, many HIV vaccines have come and gone – with the NIAID’s HVTN 505 trial being the latest casualty in the drive to stem the HIV pandemic. However, researchers at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute have published researched inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (May 6th 2013) which pinpoints a previously unknown interaction between IgA and IgG antibodies as the cause of a lack of response to the RV144 vaccine.
Killer T-cell graphic by Russell Kightely Media
Ed Rybicki's insight:
VERY interesting, if true: IgA - supposedly the Ab of choice for mucosal surface protection - interfering with IgG, and stopping killer T / NK cells from binding and killing infected cells?
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The Guardian Protection offered by GSK malaria vaccine fades over time Reuters The disappointing results for RTS,S - the world's first potential malaria vaccine - raise further questions about whether it can make a difference in the fight against...
Ed Rybicki's insight:
Sad but true - just because you have a vaccine, doesn't mean it will work as you would like.
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Latest news from South Africa, World, Politics, Entertainment and Lifestyle. The home of The Times and Sunday Times newspaper. (The hunt for an HIV vaccine has gobbled up $8-billion in the past decade with no real results.
Ed Rybicki's insight:
Beause of rampant band-wagon jumping and some ignoring of basic lessons from other lentiviruses...the Ad5 bandwagon was especially noticeable; it will be interesting to see what the new wagon will be, now that this has come to a grinding halt. Poxviruses, anyone?
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The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has announced that it will halt its HVTN 505 HIV vaccine trial due to a perceived lack of efficacy. A scheduled review by an independent data and safety monitoring board found that the vaccine regimen neither prevented HIV infection nor reduced viral load in vaccine recipients who became infected with HIV. The announcement will come as a blow to those hoping the HVTN 505 would be an effective intervention to stem the HIV pandemic.
HIV particle graphic by Russell Kightley Media
Ed Rybicki's insight:
And another one bites the dust...not only not effective, but suspected of increasing infection rates. VERY sad!
I am beginning to think that adenoviruses are simply useless when it comes to vectoring HIV genes for vaccine purposes.
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I missed this first time around - but it is one of the most-downloaded papers from Virology, so probably well worth a read.Or getting into the field...?