Dissolving Disks Deliver Drugs To The Eye Drug Delivery: A water-soluble polymer wafer could offer a better alternative to medicated eyedrops by Katherine Bourzac FEBRUARY 5, 2015
Although the eyes are easily accessible, delivering steady, nontoxic concentrations of drugs to them is a difficult problem, says Stephen C. Pflugfelder, an ophthalmologist at Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston.
Ralph Baric, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA Noroviruses are an important cause of food-borne gastroenteritis and outbreaks occur in many settings, with higher risks in the developing world and in aged, immunosuppressed, infants and young children. In fact, they are the second most important viral cause of diarrhea in children and adults, after rotavirus. There are approximately 200,000 deaths per year in children. However, norovirus are very heterogeneous in nature which poses a challenge to vaccine design. There is a 1-2% genetic change per year in the most varying strains. There are two genotypes, G1 and G2. G1 infection may induce some persistent immunity, but there are 18 different G2 genotypes and they cause 90% of disease. Within those, the G2.4 genotype is the most prevalent, causes 80% of disease an are undergoing antigenic variation like influenza virus. The receptors for the virus are the ABO blood group antigens. Using mouse and human monoclonal antibodies, major epitopes associated with protective immune responses were identified and VLPs produced using alphavirus replicons to express the proteins. The group compared the efficacy of monovalent and multivalent vaccines in mouse models of human disease, demonstrating that adjuvanted multivalent vaccine platforms not only elicit immune responses against the expressed proteins in the VLPs, but more importantly, also some heterogenotypic protection. Recent NoV VLP trials in humans are promising, providing protection from clinical disease. One key for vaccine development is the development of multiple human challenge inocula.
HIV- virosomes
Sylvain Fleury, Mymetics Corporation, Epalinges, Switzerland The ideal vaccine to prevent sexual transmission of HIV-1 should obviate entry and very early infection of HIV-1 at mucosal sites, otherwise it may be too late. The Mymetics approach is to construct a virosome particle consisting of HIV proteins embedded in influenza membranes. This looks like a VLP particle in size and the lipid may improve the antigen presentation. The antigens incorporated are from gp41 and a Membrane-Proximal External Region (MPER) peptide called P1. P1 is a lipopeptide 54 Proceedings of the Tenth Global Vaccine Research Forum and Parallel Satellite Symposia, Geneva, 26-29 June 2011 containing the Membrane-Proximal External Region (MPER) and the galactosyl ceramide mucosal receptor binding motif. The group previously demonstrated that mucosal IgAs/IgGs induced by vaccination with those virosomes, protect non-human primates (NHP) against vaginal heterologous SHIV challenges, in the absence of serum neutralizing antibodies. At present they are investigating if mucosal antibodies with similar antiviral properties can be induced in women during a Phase I trial. The design is injecting virosomes IM at 0 and 8 weeks, followed by IN immunization at 16 and 24 wks. Preliminary results show safety of the virosomes. The immunogenicity results are also confirming the previous data obtained on non-human primates, and the anti-HIV-1 mucosal responses elicited are an indication of the potential of this approach.
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