vaccines tagged posts

Vaccines have curtailed the spread of several infectious diseases, such as smallpox, polio and measles. However, vaccines against some diseases, including HIV-1, influenza and malaria, don’t work very well, and one reason could be the timing of antigen and adjuvant presentation to the immune system. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Central Science developed an injectable hydrogel that allows sustained release of vaccine components, increasing the potency, quality and duration of immune responses in mice.

To confer resistance to infectious diseases, vaccines display parts of a pathogen – known as antigens – to cells of the immune system, which develop antibodies against these molecules...

S. J. Olshansky, L. Hayflick. The Role of the WI-38 Cell Strain in Saving Lives and Reducing Morbidity. AIMS Public Health, 2017; 4 (2): 127 DOI: 10.3934/publichealth.2017.2.127 Credit: National Cancer Institute

Nearly 200 million cases of polio, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, adenovirus, rabies and hepatitis A – and ~450,000 deaths from these diseases – were prevented in the U.S. alone between 1963 and 2015 by vaccination. The study is published in AIMS Public Health. In 1963, vaccination against these infections became widespread, thanks to the development of a human cell strain that allowed vaccines to be produced safely. Globally, the vaccines developed from this strain and its derivatives prevented an ~4.5 billion cases of disease and saved more than 10 million lives.

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