Reuters reprint from Nature Medicine.
Maybe TTNP funs are not clown at all, or there are many others.
Miljenko
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Advance in vaccines against strep, cancer
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Using idiotypes, genetically engineered
antibody parts, Italian researchers report that they have moved one step
closer to developing a vaccine against group B streptococci, bacteria that
can cause infections such as strep throat and meningitis.
And a team of California researchers also report this week on their
research using idiotypes to develop a vaccine against some types of
cancer.
In the June issue of Nature Medicine, the two groups of scientists write
on their success with idiotypic vaccines, an experimental type of vaccine
that reinforces the body's natural immune response.
Most vaccines work by prompting the body to generate antibodies to
weakened or killed microorganisms. In contrast, an idiotypic vaccine
delivers part of an antibody that can also stimulate an immune response,
not just to an invading bacteria or foreign protein, but also to the antibody
part itself, thus accelerating and boosting the immune response.
In the first study, Dr. Giuseppe Teti and colleagues at Universita degli
Studi di Messina, Italy, constructed an antibody that may eventually be
useful in developing an idiotypic vaccine against group B streptococci.
Teti's group vaccinated mice with either a control antibody or the
experimental antibody, which they named C10. Blood samples showed
that C10 stimulated the production of additional antibodies, whereas the
control antibody did not.
The researchers also found that C10 given to female mice protected their
newborns against infection. They vaccinated female mice four times with
either C10 or the control antibody, including one vaccination after the
mice were pregnant.
When the research team infected newborn mice with a lethal dose of
streptococci, significantly more pups born to C10-treated mice survived,
compared with those born to mice that received the control antibody.
In the second paper, Dr. Lawrence Steinman, of Stanford University in
California, and others report that a genetically engineered antibody
induced immunity to p53, a tumor suppressor protein.
Steinman's team vaccinated mice with a control antibody or with
PAb-240, a genetically engineered antibody to mutated p53. Treated
mice, but not control mice, developed additional antibodies.
In other experiments, the investigators demonstrated that a protein
derived from PAb-240 can destroy tumor cells in the laboratory and
inhibit tumor growth in living mice.
Many other studies have demonstrated the efficacy of idiotype vaccines,
notes Dr. Constantin A. Bona, of Mount Sinai Medical Center, New
York, in an accompanying editorial.
Researchers have not pursued idiotypic vaccines, Bona explains, because
of technical problems related to production, failure to induce long-lasting
effects, and failure to stimulate the type of antibodies that protect blood
cells.
"Nevertheless, the strong immunity elicited by idiotypic vaccines in the
(current) studies offers a refreshing ray of hope," Bona concludes.
SOURCE: Nature Medicine 1998;4:668-669, 705-712. |
