Born Smart » Vaccines & Viruses

Salmonella in vaccines for babies?

Admin — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 19:00:00 +0000

The challenge in making a vaccine is to deliver a highly infectious disease to the liver and spleen hence enabling the body to trigger a strong immune response and then to disable it once the immune system has completed its job. Previously in making vaccines safe scientists faced the problem that in doing so, it may only cause a localized effect. Roy Curtiss from Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute says, “If you make something safe and sort of cut off both arms and both legs, it can’t get to where it needs to go in the body’.

Salmonella is a violent and very dangerous disease and can ravage the body’s defenses. Researchers have now found a novel way of using Salmonella’s speed and ferocity to trigger a powerful immune response. Curtiss and his colleagues have genetically altered the Salmonella to contain a delayed self destruct mechanism. They produced a salmonella strain that requires sugars that are not available in the human body (only in the lab) once the salmonella runs out of this sugar, its cell walls burst. Curtiss says. “We’ve got the Salmonella on a string. We can decide when to snap the string, and they’re gone.”

They are hoping to make a vaccine for infant bacterial pneumonia, the cause of 2 million deaths every year worldwide.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090112201240.htm

Help with Cold and Flu when Pregnant

Admin — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 08:01:00 +0000

Getting cold or flu during pregnancy can be tough as taking medication during pregnancy is dangerous for baby.

A study in December found a simple hot drink of apple and blackcurrant fruit cordial provide immediate and sustained relief from Cold and Flu symptoms like a runny nose, cough, sneezing, sore throat, chilliness and tiredness.

Make sure you are eating sardines or salmon every day to increase vitamin D levels as few other foods contain it. Vitamin D is the new super vitamin on the block, with a series of studies linking the vitamin to 36 organs in the body, right at the top of the list of benefits is a stronger immune system.

A vaccine for babies against asthma

Admin — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 21:06:00 +0000

In 1966 an attempt at formulating a vaccine for the RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) failed. Half of all infants under 12 months of age, contract RSV and hospitalizations have now more than doubled. After a breakthrough study showed that this virus is possibly also responsible for asthma, researchers are now again trying to find a vaccine to protect infants against RSV.

Recent results have shown that the problem with the 1966 virus was that the vaccine failed to trigger a signal for the immune system to recognize the virus, therefore failing to mount a defense against it. When researchers vaccinated mice with a modified version of the old vaccine, formulated to help the immune system recognize the virus. The mice had milder symptoms and less inflammation in the lungs after being infected with RSV.

A vaccine against RSV could mean a vaccine against asthma.