Closing in on a Universal Flu Vaccine

For so long we’ve struggled to fight back against the flu. Its caused one of the deadliest pandemics in history and it is the biggest contender for causing the next pandemic. Every year we struggle to come out with the appropriate vaccines to fight the seasonal flu and sometimes we just can’t get it right.

But a recent multi-million dollar grant to Georgia State University’s Institute for Biomedical Sciences might solve all our flu problems with a painless vaccine that provides cross-immunity between influenza A and B.

If successfully created, this vaccine will check a lot of the boxes for what we want in a vaccine.

First, it will provide immunity to multiple strains of the flu. This is key in eliminating our current hit-or-miss technique in deciding which strains we’ll vaccinate against each flu season. We now won’t have to make risky guesses and we’ll be able to get rid of the current 6 month development time for said vaccines.

Second, it will be painless. The vaccine will take the form of dissolvable microneedle patches that can be easily applied to the skin sans any sore biceps. This will hopefully allow wider immunization because those who are currently wary of needles because of the pain will no longer have to worry.

Third, it breaks the cold-chain as in it doesn’t require constant refrigeration thanks to its dry formulation. This will be immensely helpful in getting the vaccine to everyone including those in developing areas.

While this is very exciting, we still have yet to see what the cost of this vaccine will be. If too expensive, it’s dry formulation won’t do any good in getting the vaccine to poor developing areas. However, there is promise. The Georgia Institute’s grant will last for five years and then we’ll find out whether or not we will be universally protected against the flu.

-Mailo Numazu

Source:

https://news.gsu.edu/2019/02/26/researcher-gets-3-86-million-grant-to-develop-universal-flu-vaccine-with-microneedle-patch/

Phage Therapy- Russian Propaganda or Prevention against Superbugs?

An infectious disease epidemiologist and an evolutionary psychologist walk into a pharaoh's tomb... and one of them gets Acinetobacter baumannii?? 

Basically, this science loving couple named Steffanie Strathdee and Tom Patterson was on vacation in Egypt and one of them came down with a stomach bug. Unfortunately, this stomach bug turned out to be a particularly gnarly opportunistic infection- that happened to be drug resistant. Tom, the husband suffering from the Acinetobacter baumannii infection, had a soccer ball sized cyst in his stomach full of the bacterium. Luckily for him, Steffanie is an infectious disease epidemiologist. She poured through PubMed (much as I have done for many of these blogs) and found an article about alternative therapies for superbugs.  One of these ideas was called phage therapy. Phage therapy was actually a USSR brainchild. The Soviets used to use bacteriophages, which are viruses that prey on bacteria, because they didn't have consistent access to the level of antibacterial medication that the West had. Between the association with Communism and a lack of innovation in traditional Western medicine, phage therapy was inaccessible to Americans. Until Steffanie found this article about phage therapy and convinced a research hospital to attempt it on her husband, it hadn't been used successfully in the United States. Thankfully, after this therapy Tom recovered fully- and opened a door to the long forgotten phage therapy! The couple has now created North America's first phage therapy center, called the Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics center.

Read more....

sick wired article for background
https://www.wired.com/story/this-viral-therapy-could-help-us-survive-the-superbug-era/

technical article from UCSD
https://health.ucsd.edu/news/topics/phage-therapy/Pages/default.aspx

Anja Zehfuss
2/26

Heart with HCV, can you save me?

Nine patients at The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania were able to receive lifesaving transplants with hearts infected with HCV, and successfully recover from the infection.
This study, termed USHER, followed in the footsteps of a previous study done at the university called THINKER, which involved the transplant of kidneys from HCV-infected donors. In both studies, transplant recipients who completed their dosage of antiviral drug therapy were HCV-free. This is the first study of HCV-infected hearts into HCV-negative patients with a formal protocol, which allowed for appropriate data querying and collection from both donors and recipients. Over the course of nearly a year between June 2017 and April 2018, 10 patients received transplants under the protocol, and three days later were tested for the virus. All 10 were HCV-positive and began an 12-week course of elbasvir/grazoprevir, commonly known as Zepatier, which inhibits a serine protease eznyme that is used to cleave the polyprotein into mature proteins that are used in viral replication. While one patient died due to an unrelated antibody-mediated rejection, those that completed the course of Zepatier were cured of their contracted HCV and went on to live lives with a high quality of life. This study is extremely relevant as it highlights the potential of donor hearts that were previously discarded due to HCV infection being used in patients that are desperately in need of a new heart and continue to wait on the transplant list at risk of becoming sicker and/or dying before an appropriate donor is found. Researchers agree that there is a need for longer and larger trials to continue evaluating the effectiveness of HCV-positive to HCV-negative transplantation followed by antiviral therapy in a broader population, and hope to run a similar protocol in patients awaiting a lung transplant.

Read more at: 
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. "Doctors eradicate Hepatitis C in patients after heart transplants from infected donors: Study suggests the use of HCV-infected organs may be viable option for patients awaiting a heart transplant." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 25 February 2019. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190225100716.htm>.

-Riasoya Jodah

From <https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7920903334419174498> 

Learning from Bats

Some very serious human viruses have their origins within bats. These include SARS and MERS viruses, viruses part of the Coronaviriade famaily, as well as Ebola Virus, and Nipah Virus. While these viruses cause much damage in human hosts, bats are able to survive after infections with these viruses for a very long time.

A team lead by Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore sought to study the mechanism behind bat's ability to host deadly viruses without becoming sick. The secret, they discovered, lies not in what bats can do that human cannot, but rather in what they do not do. The NLRP3 protein in humans and many other mammals is crucial in triggering inflammatory responses to infection. However, in bats, the NLRP3 protein has significantly reduced activity than that of its human counterparts. Further examination of differing species of bats revealed that this protein variant has been conserved across evolution and seems to be bat specific.

When properly regulated, inflammation helps reduce infection, but excessive inflammation has been observed to lead to increased damage caused by infectious disease and increased rates of aging. Bats, thus do not have increased immune response, but rather higher tolerance towards viral infection and less drastic inflammatory pathways to combat these infections.

This discovery has implications in the treatment of human disease by switching focus from specific antigen targeting to a more general disease prevention method.

The full story can be found at Duke-NUS Medical School. (2019, February 26). The secret to bats' immunity. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 26, 2019 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190226112401.htm

-Angela Wang

Shingrix

A few days ago I found myself standing in line at a CVS pharmacy when I heard the person standing in front of me ask the pharmacists for the Shingrix vaccine. What struck me was that aside from flu shots, I rarely see people going into pharmacies to request vaccines of their own initiative. As a virus and vaccine devotee, I of course, immediately Googled this vaccine to study up on it. Here’s what I found:

Shingrix is a fairly new vaccine that hit the market in 2017/2018. It was developed to protect
against varicella zoster virus, also known as herpes zoster, which is the virus that causes
chickenpox. The vaccine is a recombinant, adjuvanted vaccine, and two doses are recommended
for maximum immune response. Shingrix is the first Shingles vaccine that has been approved
by the FDA in 10 years. The company marketing the vaccine states that almost 99% of individuals
over 50 have had a chickenpox infection, and as they age and their immune systems weaken,
the possibility of reactivation of infection from a latent virus already in their system increases.
They also say that their vaccine was shown to be 90% effective in clinical trials.

So far, things are working out well in terms of marketing this vaccine to the public. Since the
launch of the vaccine, the company estimates that over 7 million doses have been administered.
In fact, many pharmacies are running into shortages of the vaccine because the demand has
been unexpectedly high. According to one company representative, the demand for Shingrix
is several times higher than what they expected based on previous Shingles vaccine rates.

In a time when vaccine controversy is rampant, these high numbers are impressive. Since
most vaccine controversy is over vaccines given to children and infants, perhaps older people
are more willing to accept risk of side effects for themselves rather than for their children.

Renata Starbird

https://www.shingrix.com/index.html

https://www.drugtopics.com/vaccination-and-immunization/amid-shortage-concerns-pharmacies-manufacturer-increasing-shipments-shingles-vaccine

Zombie Deer Disease and Prion Evolution

Chronic Wasting Disease has been spreading rapidly among deer in the central states. The disease is caused by prions, misfolded proteins which characterize several fatal neurodegenerative disorders: most infamously Mad Cow Disease, but also Scrapie, Kuru, and Creutzfeld-Jacob disease. The way prions cause disease is that a single misfolded prion protein coming into contact with correctly folded proteins in the body exerts a sort of "peer pressure" on other proteins, causing them to also become misfolded in the same manner. Through this, the number of misfolded proteins grows exponentially over time. Prions contain no genetic material, and unlike viruses, are firmly in the realm of things that are "not alive." Despite this, prions can be infectious, passing from host to host to cause disease, and interestingly, still experience a form of evolution.

This ability to evolve is part of the growing concern over the spread of chronic wasting disease. Not only does this disease cause major dispruptions to ecosystems by disrupting natural species' equilibrium and killing many deer, the disease may eventually evolve to spread to humans. Thus far, research has shown both experientially, and in the laboratory that humans are not susceptibe to Chronic Wasting Disease. In 2005, a study followed 200 individuals who had eaten deer meat with detectable levels of prion for 6 years. None showed any symptoms of the disease during that time-- the only difference between this group and the general population was that most stopped eating venison after the whole ordeal. Furthermore, laboratory experiments with humanized mice have shown that humans are not susceptible to CWD prions. However, laboratory research has uncovered two worrying facts: squirrel monkeys, which are relatively much more evolutionarily related to humans, are susceptible to CWD. Second, CWD prions can evolve in laboratory settings such that they are infectious to human proteins. If this happened in nature, a second epidemic of zoonotic prion disease could be on our hands. In the mean time, perhaps knowledge of the past Mad Cow disease outbreak, news coverage spreading awareness, and caution may help reduce the impact of an outbreak should it occur.

~Lisa Manzanete

References:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25225155
https://www.cdc.gov/prions/cwd/index.html
https://www.cste2.org/Webinars/files/CWD_Slides_FINAL.pdf
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8435320.stm

Measles Outbreak in Japan

Japan is facing its worst outbreak in years, with many infections occurring among people who attended a Valentine's Day gift fair and a religious group that promotes alternative medicine.

According to the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, as of February 10th, 167 cases were reported in 20 of Japan's 47 prefectures, with the largest outbreaks in the prefectures of Mie and Osaka. It's the fastest Japan has reached that many cases at the beginning of the year since 2008.

Almost all of the 49 reported cases in Mie were people associated to religious group Miroku Community Kyusei Shinkyo. The group has said it promotes avoiding medicines and vaccines and instead eating naturally farmed foods. However, after some members became infected, the group apologized and announced that it was changing its practices on its website: "Given the unexpected situation, we will follow the health care center's advice to get vaccine shots for measles or other highly infectious diseases so that we don't cause concern to others."

Infections also occurred in a complex in Osaka where 21 customers and workers at a Valentine's Day fair contracted the virus. Several cases were connected to children who returned to Japan from the Philippines, where another measles outbreak is occurring.

In Japan, a vaccine for measles, mumps, and rubella was discontinued in the early 1990s after it was connected to aseptic meningitis; consequently, the government has been cautious towards advocating vaccines. Nevertheless, in 2006, Japanese health officials began recommending a second measles vaccination shot for children to increase immunization rates. 

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/22/world/asia/japan-measles-outbreak.html

-- Caroline Aung

Type I Diabetes may be an Infectious, not Genetic, Disease

Type I diabetes, also known as juvenile diabetes, afflicts over 40,000 new children each year. It is characterized by pancreatic beta-islet cell autoimmunity, leading to a lack of insulin control by the pancreas. As a result, the signs and symptoms of diabetes arise, potentially including lack of control over body water, neuropathy, nephropathy, blindness, and dramatically increased risk of heart disease. A joint study published February 11, 2019, between Australian and American Universities made use of VirCapSeq-VERT (Virome-Capture-Sequencing for Vertebrate-infecting viruses) in order to determine the presence and size of the viral populations in fecal and plasma samples collected from patients with at least one relative with Type I Diabetes. This powerful sequencing technique is specific to vertebrate infecting viruses and confers a higher specificity and accuracy to this type of screen. In total, it was determined that Type I Diabetes patients (as opposed to controls) were more likely to have Enterovirus A infections. Not surprisingly, there was no significant differences in the blood viral load of these patients. These gender-matched, age-matched controls, however, were able to show that Enterovirus A infections were more common in those with Type 1 Diabetes in the stool (where these viral particles would be expected, and where they would most likely be found if they were infecting the pancreas) by up to 4 times. Individual viruses (like Enterovirus CVA2 and CVB3) were over tenfold more likely in a natural log fold analysis.

This research suggests that Type I Diabetes, thought by the public to be genetic and by science to have an unknown cause, may be the result of a pancreatic enteroviral infection. By making use of these powerful genomics techniques, the analysis of big data can continue to elucidate the causes of unknown diseases, many of which may source from viral infection.

~Kyle Enriquez

Sources:

Ki Wook Kim, Jessica L. Horton, Chi Nam Ignatius Pang, Komal Jain, Preston Leung, Sonia R. Isaacs, Rowena A. Bull, Fabio Luciani, Marc R. Wilkins, Jacki Catteau, W. Ian Lipkin, William D. Rawlinson, Thomas Briese, Maria E. Craig. Higher abundance of enterovirus A species in the gut of children with islet autoimmunity. Scientific Reports, 2019; 9 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-38368-8

Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. (2019, February 20). Viruses that linger in gut could trigger type 1 diabetes. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 20, 2019 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190220113754.htm

Anti-cancer immunotherapy also fights HIV infection

Canadian researchers have shown that immunotherapy treatments used in cancer patients could reduce the HIV viral concentration in patients on triple therapy (a single pill containing efavirenz, tenofovir, and FTC that is taken daily). 
The experiments, performed in-vitro, have identified the mechanisms by which the cancer drugs "awake" the virus hiding in CD4+ T lymphocytes. HIV requires a host cell to remain to survive, and thus remains dormant by building a reservoir inside these immune cells that can be controlled by antiretrovirals but not completely eliminated. In-vitro studies have shown that CD4+ T lymphocytes have characteristic PD-1, LAG-3 and TIGIT proteins that are expressed at the cell surface. These proteins are also the target of several anti-cancer therapies. 
Researchers evaluated the effectiveness of this immunotherapy in a small group of patients who had both cancer and HIV and found that the patients' HIV reservoir decreased considerably. Though the research is in its early stages, next steps include combining the anti-immunotherapy drugs with antiretrovirals to awaken the virus and then remove infected cells. However, such a treatment may only be effective in certain groups of patients, and immunotherapy has considerable side effects that should not be taken lightly.


-Riasoya Jodah

Read more at:
University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM). "Using anti-cancer immunotherapy to fight HIV: Researchers are exploring a potential therapeutic approach." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 19 February 2019. 

Type I Diabetes may be caused by viral infection

Yesterday, researchers at the Center for Infection and Immunity and the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, found new evidence supporting the fact that Type I Diabetes may be linked with viral infection.

The study was performed using blood and fecal samples of 93 children and used a new technology called the VirCapSeq-VERT viral sequencing tool. This tool operates through reference of a library of sequences selected from genetic pieces representing all viral taxa that infect vertebrates. These form a probe that is mixed with an unknown sample. Only genetic segments from the sample that match those contained in the probe are extracted with magnetic beads and analyzed through high throughput sequencing. This tool is significantly more powerful at identifying viruses than traditional sequencing methods and has already been used to identify unknown diseases in Uganda and Tanzania and to detect Chikungunya in Brazil.

From the fecal samples, researchers found 5 enterovirus-A species that were significantly more abundant in children with islet autoimmunity than with age and gender matched controls. Though no similar association was found in the blood samples, researchers say this is not surprising, as the body clears viral infections from the bloodstream more quickly than from the gut.

This finding provides new evidence for the hypothesis that enteroviral infections can spread from the bloodstream to the pancreas and trigger an immune response towards the islet cells, leading to Type I diabetes.

The full story can be found here

Ki Wook Kim, Jessica L. Horton, Chi Nam Ignatius Pang, Komal Jain, Preston Leung, Sonia R. Isaacs, Rowena A. Bull, Fabio Luciani, Marc R. Wilkins, Jacki Catteau, W. Ian Lipkin, William D. Rawlinson, Thomas Briese, Maria E. Craig. Higher abundance of enterovirus A species in the gut of children with islet autoimmunity. Scientific Reports, 2019; 9 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-38368-8

~Angela Wang, Feb. 21, 2019

Cracking the Travel Patterns of Viruses

In the virus community, it is well understood that planes, trains, and high traffic areas hold huge potential for helping an infectious viral agent spread to new regions. To prevent this during an outbreak, people are told not to travel if they are infected or suspect they might be. But it’s impossible to guarantee that people will follow this rule and its impossible to know if they have spread the disease to other people on those transportation lines and in those high traffic areas.

But it may not be impossible for much longer. Researcher have developed a bioaerosol sampling tool that tests airborne particle to detect viruses quickly and inform outbreak prevention efforts. They have already tested these tools in high traffic areas, such as the Raleigh Durham International Airport, and collected 72 samples that contained viruses such as Influenza D and adenovirus. By using this tool, researchers and public health field workers will be able to find out what infectious pathogens are at risk of travelling and be able to set up the appropriate prevention methods.

The benefits of this bioaerosol sampling technique is that it is portable and non-invasive, no one will have to get their blood drawn and tested for viruses at the airport. This technique also provides quick results, allowing for efficient outbreak control to occur. However, before we truly see it in action, researchers need to find the optimal sampling parameters for various respiratory viruses to make the tool more specific. With many of the world’s dangerous pathogens being airborne, this technique could be pivotal in preventing future pandemics from viruses such as influenza. So keep your eye out for bioaerosol tools in your local airport or train station. We’ll hopefully see them soon.

-Mailo Numazu

Source:

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-02-planes-viruses-transit-air-outbreak.html

Washington State moving to pass bill to eliminate personal exemptions from MMR vaccine

The Southwestern part of Washington State has been hit by a measles outbreak, with at least 52 known cases in WA and 4 known cases in OR. In light of this outbreak, the Health Care and Wellness Committee of the Washington State House just passed House Bill 1638, which reads that "a philosophical or personal objection may not be used to exempt a child from the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine". The bill, which received 9 Democratic and 1 Republican vote out of the 15 members of the committee, was met by stiff resistance and protests from hundreds of anti-vaccination activists. It now heads to the House Rules Committee.

The outbreak is concentrated in an area with a high proportion of "anti-vaxxers", or people who believe that vaccines cause harmful effects and mistrust those who administer them. Washington State is one of 17 states that grant personal or philosophical exemptions to mandatory vaccines, a loophole that has been widely used by people in the area to avoid the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccination.

Read more at: https://www.newsweek.com/measles-mumps-rubella-mmr-house-bill-1638-vaccine-olympia-washington-1333915

- Arjun Kumar

Reduced antibody diversity increases flu susceptibility in elderly

Researchers at the University of Chicago published new work in Cell Host & Microbe yesterday showing that the influenza vaccine may be less effective in the elderly due to their B-cells' reduced ability to generate diverse antibodies. Adapting to new strains of influenza require the generation of mutations in the B-cells and their expressed antibodies that introduce diversity and allow for clonal evolution of the immune response. Elderly adults have increased susceptibility to bacterial, viral, and fungal infections and significantly reduced antibody response to flu vaccination. The vast majority of influenza deaths therefore come from people over the age of 65.

Patrick Wilson and his team compared B-cell and antibody responses to vaccination of elderly and young adults with different flu strains, and found that elderly people had a relatively fixed B-cell repertoire while younger subjects continuously accumulated mutations that introduced genetic variation. The antibodies of the elderly were also less potent and conferred less protection against flu, likely due to a lower affinity for antigens from recent flu strains, as most of the elderly antibodies came from aged memory B-cells from previous exposures. This phenomenon could be related to reduced somatic hypermutation in the B-cell germinal center by Activation-Induced Deaminase (AID) among elderly people, reducing the amount of affinity maturation that can take place to create a robust antibody response.

Read more at: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190219111742.htm

- Arjun Kumar

Controversial gain-of-FUNction research to make bird-flu more contagious

In the cut-throat world of science and academia it’s often thought that “bigger is better”, but this might be leading scientists towards pushing forwards with reckless research that’s dangers far outweigh the potential benefits. In 2017, the US government announced that it would once again begin funding gain-of-function research including two studies that aim to make bird flu more contagious. One will begin in a few weeks and the other will begin later this spring. The argument for conducting this type of research is that it will allow us to better understand and predict epidemics and pandemics. While there is some merit to this line of reasoning, the issue is that if they are successful and the virus is accidentally released from containment, we could easily cause a pandemic ourselves and kill millions of people.

There is a significant controversy over this issue and those against it believe that there isn’t enough transparency regarding the reasoning and funding of such research. Some have proposed that research like this should be discussed and approved by a panel of global stakeholders because if an outbreak were to occur, it would certainly be a global issue.

Renata Starbird

https://www.vox.com/2019/2/17/18225938/biologists-are-trying-to-make-bird-flu-easier-to-spread-can-we-not

CD8+ T cell cross-reactivity across influenza viruses

Every year we play a public health game with the influenza vaccine. We make a bet as to which strains of the virus will wreak havoc on us and put those into the annual flu vaccines that are distributed world-wide. And when we get it wrong, the results can be devastating.

Research being done at the University of Melbourne on the human body’s response to influenza virus infection is revealing exciting information that could help us develop a universal influenza vaccine. What they found is that certain T cells in our body - CD8+ T cells - are cross reactive across IAV, IBV, and ICV. This is remarkable because our current flu vaccines are hardly able to cross react with different substrains of influenza A, B, and C, much less across all three strains! The implications of this could mean that in the coming years researched will be able to develop a universal flu vaccine to protect against all strains including ICV which can cause severe disease in children. The researchers are planning ahead as they already have a patent on the discovery meaning they are the only ones who can develop the vaccine.

Renata Starbird

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41590-019-0320-6

https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/our-killer-cells-role-in-life-long-flu-vaccine

Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness Bounces Back

Recent reports from the CDC have suggested that the flu vaccine is upwards of 47% effective this year, almost twice as much as last year. Despite elevated influenza activity, it appears that the vaccine is working better than the one created for the severe 2017-2018 flu season. The CDC’s surveillance team specializing in the Influenza virus has suggested that this year isolates from patients identify the most virulent strains in the United States consisted of A(H1N1)pdm09 and A(H3N2). The predominant A(H1N1)pdm09 was especially virulent in children, while the A(H3N2) strain was notably found in the southeastern continental United States. Overall, incidence of infection of many Influenza B viruses is less than 5%, with batches of tested samples positive for influenza ranging from 1.7% to almost 22% in any given week of the season. This variability can be attributed to the sigmoidal behavior of infection, consistent with past seasons, where infection is low in October and November, rises in late December, and peaks during February. This year infections were generally of lower severity, yet it was concluded that the proportion of individuals aged 5-24 years infected is on the rise. This proportion may stem from a few different potential causes: epidemiologically sensitive populations are getting infected less often, viral strains present in recent years are more infectious (as there are significantly more people aged 5-24 than 0-4 or 65+) across the entire population, or even that these younger populations are more likely to have access to healthcare and get tested for the flu.

This increase in effectiveness as compared to previous years is not only a good thing for those who are (and are not) vaccinated this year, but predicts hopeful trends for further prevention of influenza infection. This magnitude of increase is impressive, as the number of influenza vaccines is speculated to have decreased this year based on the perceived ineffectiveness of the vaccine last year (~25% effective). Despite this fact, it is estimated that the 2017-2018 vaccine prevented 7.1 million infections and over 8000 associated deaths.  The uphill battle against influenza infection is an ongoing issue and the CDC maintains strong surveillance of these infections in order to predict future infection patterns and prevent widespread disease when possible.

~Kyle Enriquez

Sources:

https://consumer.healthday.com/infectious-disease-information-21/flu-news-314/flu-shot-much-more-effective-this-year-cdc-says-742770.html

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/68/wr/mm6806a1.htm?s_cid=mm6806a1_w

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/

Lighting the way to an HPV cure?

On February 3, 2019, the National Polytechnic Institute of Mexico announced that one of its scientists, Eva Ramón Gallegos, and her team of researchers had developed a cure for Human Papilloma Virus  (HPV) infection, a previously untreatable viral infection. There are more than 100 types of HPV, at least 14 of which are known to cause cancers. HPV is the cause of nearly all cervical cancers, as well as some cancers of the anus, vulva, vagina, penis, and oropharynx. In 2018, approximately 311 thousand women died of cervical cancer, 85%  of whom lived in low- and middle- income countries. Vaccines for HPV types 16 and 18 are recommended by the CDC, but vaccination rates remain low, even in high resource countries, and even those who are vaccinated remain vulnerable to the many dozens of other types of HPV that are circulating. Finally, about 80% of the world becomes infected with HPV at some point during their lives. Because of its ubiquity and severity, a cure for HPV has been long sought after. 

Dr. Eva Ramón Gallegos and her team developed their treatment using photodynamic therapy. The treatment works as follows: doctors inject the chemical 5-Aminolevulinic acid into the cervix of women affected by HPV. This substance degrades into a fluorescent compound called Protoporphyrin IX, which accumulates only in cells infected with the virus. Finally, the cervix is exposed to a laser that interacts with the fluorescent compound to produce reactive oxygen species that kills only the cells infected with virus. Thus far, the team reports abundant success: hundreds of women who participated in the trial who were suffering from HPV lesions finished the trial with complete clearance of the virus. In preliminary trials performed in Oaxaca and Veracruz, Mexico, the treatment reduced patients' viral loads to zero 85% of patients with HPV lesions, and 42% of patients with cancerous lesions. In a follow-up trial performed in Mexico City, the researchers achieved a 100% success rate, completing clearing the virus for all 29 participants with only HPV lesions, and achieving clearance in 57.2% of patients with cancerous lesions. 

These results are extraordinarily promising, and yet there has been almost no United States coverage of this research. This breakthrough provides not only interesting science, but an example of what we may be missing out on when translating research between language, context, and culture. 

~Lisa Manzanete

References:

1. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/eva-ramon-gallegos-hpv/

2. https://www.telesurtv.net/news/vph-virus-papiloma-humano-mexico-eva-ramon-gallegos-20190208-0016.html

3. https://cnnespanol.cnn.com/video/investigadora-ipn-elimina-vph-virus-papiloma-humano-estudio-mexico-pkg-krupskaia-alis/

4. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/human-papillomavirus-(hpv)-and-cervical-cancer

Scientists Use Bacteria-Infected Mosquitos to Combat Arboviruses

In Townsville, Australia, near the Great Barrier Reef, researchers have begun using bacteria-infected mosquitos to combat the spread of viral diseases. While dengue is not endemic, tourists can bring the disease to the local aedes aegypti mosquitos, the same species responsible for transmission in endemic areas. Researchers are releasing mosquitos infected with Wolbachia, a disease harmless to humans but that inhibits disease transmission of mosquitos, to protect residents against viral infections. Wolbachia-infected male mosquitos cannot produce viable offspring with uninfected females, resulting in a slow spread of the disease towards the entire population. Through this process, the researchers hope to make transmitting diseases to humans more difficult for the region's mosquitos.

In addition to Australia, the program is working with 12 other countries to restrict the transmission of disease. In addition to dengue, researchers hope to combat other arboviral diseases, like Zika. Other strategies of employing Wolbachia include releasing only infected males to reduce the population of mosquitos overall, which has the byproduct of reducing the ability to maintain an epidemic. However, this process would need to be regularly repeated, as mosquitos may immigrate and establish new colonies. For more news, see: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/08/opinion/mosquito-fighting-tropical-disease.html

-Ed

Antigenic shifts with potentially deadly outcomes

Researchers have been looking into the potentially deadly implications of “viral sex” or what is officially termed as viral re-assortment. This is the process by which viruses combine genomes and mix to form new strains with different mutations. Specific concerns of this come from researchers who have been monitoring bird influenza strains H7N9 and H5N8. Fortunately, re-assortment between the avian strains and the current human strain is limited by a few key factors. Primarily, “packaging signals” make it difficult for the RNA genome of the avian strains to combine with the human one. Secondly, Maria White (the head researcher on the project), claims that key sequence differences would also make recombination unlikely. However, White conducted subsequent studies in guinea pigs in which hemaglutinin (the receptor that allows influenza to bind to host cells) were able to mutate when both strains were present in order to produce a new type of flu virus. This potential for mutation is a daunting this to face because of a lack of knowledge about how to prepare for such an eventuality. While most people are not at risk of contracting a version of the avian flu, those who come into direct contact with birds frequently put themselves at risk of contracting it, meaning that a hybrid strain could come from a high exposure area such as a poultry farm.

-India Robinson

For more information visit https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190212160015.htm

Measles helping to reprogram stem cells

Previously, the way that researchers had to reprogram pluripotent stem cells involved introducing target cells to four different reprogramming proteins (OCT4, SOX2, KLF4 and cMYC). By exposing the stem cells to these four factors separately, there was a chance that not all of the target cells would be exposed to all four factors equally, causing there to be a higher chance of having partially reprogrammed cells. Partial reprogramming is dangerous on multiple fronts: it can lead cells to be unstable and even cause mutations that could ultimately create tumors instead of helping to treat disease. However, a new method has recently been developed by the Mayo Clinic using the attenuated measles vaccine as a vector for these proteins. By first killing the virus and any dangerous parts of the viral genome, researchers are able to insert a combination of the four target genes into the virus which can then carry them all together and expose stem cells to the factors equally. Not only does this offer a more reliable way of reprogramming stem cells but also allows the whole process to much more efficient by cutting down the times that they need to introduce factors from four to one.

-India Robinson

For more information visit: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190212120046.htm

HPV in Tennessee

In 2015, there were 288 cases of HPV within Tennessee and 112 women died from the cancer. This is not necessarily one of the highest counts within the United States. However, what is worth considering is that estimates are suggesting that this number will only increase over the next few years as more and more individuals are refusing to receive the HPV vaccine. The HPV vaccine is recommended in young and adolescent boy and girls (around the ages of 11 and 12). As of 2016, HPV vaccination rates between the ages of 13-17 in Tennessee are some of the lowest in the country (around 35% for adolescent males and 37% for adolescent females). States with lower vaccination rates include Utah and Indiana. The low vaccination rates are largely due to a stigma surrounding the origins and sexual transmission of the virus. Parents report feeling uncomfortable having the conversation with their children and many even feel so extremely certain that their children are not having sexual relations and therefore that the vaccine does not apply to them. Doctors and health officials are currently beginning to brainstorm new ways to educate the public around the topic of conversation and reduce stigma.

-Alexandra Ulmer

Sources: https://www.fox13memphis.com/top-stories/most-tennesseans-are-choosing-to-not-get-vaccine-for-cancer-causing-virus/921693656?utm_source=homestream&utm_medium=site_navigation&utm_campaign=homestream_click

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/66/wr/mm6633a2.htm#T3_down 

Promising HIV Vaccine used in Non-Human Primates

Researchers at the Scripps Research Institute have developed a vaccine which shows promise against a strain of HIV, considered a tier 2 virus because of its constantly changing conformation, that resembles the type found in humans. The vaccine stimulates the production of neutralizing antibodies that target a trimeric Env glycoprotein which exists mostly in a closed configuration. These neutralizing antibodies, when manufactured in the lab, were discovered to counteract the effects of the virus in animal models. The challenge posed to scientist however was inducing the animals to generate the antibodies in their own. This required them being exposed to the Env trimer, which was notoriously unstable. In 2013, however, a genetically engineered trimer was produced and researchers moved forward by generating a vaccine containing it. They then reimmunized multiple groups of rhesus macaque monkeys who had both low and high antibody levels, along with a group of unimmunized primates as a control. The primates were then injected with SHIV, engineered simian HIV, that displays the same Env trimer. Among those monkeys with high antibody levels (or titers), the vaccine prevented against infection, but titer levels eventually fell as did immunity. However, the study is one of the first of its kind to determine the level of antibodies needed to produce immunity. and researchers have now shifted their efforts to determine ways to maintain high neutralizing antibody levels. Further, they are also searching for broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) that can neutralize many strains of HIV, rather than the single strain that this vaccine targets.

Read more at: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/12/181214121811.htm

-Riasoya Jodah

Trump Administration Announces Efforts to End the U.S. HIV Epidemic

President Trump has made an announcement to end the
U.S. HIV epidemic by the year 2030. However, officials have declined to disclose the amount of new funding that would be dedicated to the aim. They said that their goal is to reduce new HIV infections in the U.S. by 75% in the next five years and 90% in the next ten years by targeting efforts in 48 counties and rural communities in seven states ("hot spots" that account for more than half of the epidemic).

Some consumer and advocacy groups questioned the administration's announcement, which expands on efforts begun by the Obama administration to make the U.S. "a place where new HIV infections are rare." They also say that the Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar's move to suspend the acquisition of new fetal tissue for research has complicated the quest to find a cure for HIV. Mary Alice Carter, executive director of Equity Forward, a reproductive rights advocacy group, comments, "[Azar] says he supports tackling HIV/AIDS in the United States, but HHS is dismantling research for cures at the behest of the antiabortion lobby." Moreover, consumer and advocacy groups criticize the administration's decision to divert millions of dollars intended for medical programs such as HIV/AIDS services at the NIH and CDC to pay for housing the increasing number of migrant children detained at the border.

More than 1 million people in the U.S. are living with HIV, and about 40,000 become infected every year. Only 10% of the 1.2 million that should be on drugs to prevent infection are on the regimen, known as pre-exposure prophylaxis. According to scientists and policy makers, the new drugs and tools developed in past few years have made it possible to end the HIV epidemic by reducing its spread to low levels.  To achieve this goal, those with HIV must get treatment that will not only save their lives but also stop them from spreading the virus. In addition, AIDS drugs must be provided to people who are susceptible to infection, as the drugs reduce the risk of infection by about 97%.


Source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-administration-to-target-hotspots-to-end-u-s-hiv-epidemic-11549495049


-- Caroline Aung

New anti-influenza drugs

Every year a new vaccine must be developed for influenza due to the constant rate of mutation of H and N surface proteins in the influenza virus. However, Hemagglutinin and Neuraminidase both target Sialic Acid, a sugar receptor on normal host cells. Since this is the main way that the virus infects humans, siliac acid does not mutate at rates anywhere near those of influenza. 

Recently, at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, scientists have engineered antibody fragments with enhanced sialic acid which will attract the binding of H and N proteins and prevent them from binding to host cells. 

Though this project is only in its beginning stages, its potential impact on future influenza antivirals is enormous and could help us produce a much more effective vaccine. 

The full story can be found here Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. "New anti-influenza drugs." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 25 January 2019. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/01/190125120114.htm>

-Angela Wang

The Game of Hide-and-Seek with HIV may be at an End

HIV has been playing a game of hide-and-seek for years with scientists in search of a cure. We first found it’s sequelae, a rare lung infection and an aggressive cancer. We then discovered that these conditions were caused by a weakened immune system, later to be termed AIDS, and even later to be discovered as HIV’s later form. The actual retrovirus that causes AIDS wasn’t discovered for a few more years. And this might’ve been the end of the road and we probably could’ve found a cure in the antiretroviral treatments we created. Except HIV sits latently in the body for decades until activating later in life causing AIDS, which the antiretroviral drugs have no effect on.

This latent reservoir of HIV is a roadblock to scientists’ discovery of a cure. Part of this roadblock is our inability to tell how big this reservoir is in each patient making every trial of experimental therapies a shot into the void.

However, a team at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute may have shed some light on this part of HIV, effectively ending it’s game of hide-and-seek. Their method of detecting the latent reservoir involved distinguishing between unaffected and productively infected cells, which allows for more precise quantification of the hidden virus.

While this isn’t a solid method yet that has revealed all about HIV, it is a big step forward towards curing HIV. By knowing how much virus is initially in the patient before the treatment and how much is present after will be key in telling whether things are working and decreasing the disease. HIV is a global disease affecting millions of people and leading to the death of millions of others. If a cure can be found, quality of life around the world will be improved greatly. With this new quantitative technique, maybe we will see this cure in our lifetime.

-Mailo Numazu

Source:

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/hiv-hidden-in-patients-cells-can-now-be-accurately-measured

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-0898-8

https://www.avert.org/professionals/history-hiv-aids/overview

Does prior Dengue infection protect or harm patients with Zika? Results are inconclusive...

     In 2015, a massive Zika outbreak hit South America. Originally thought to be a typical Flavivirus, Zika soon proved to be a greater health risk than anticipated, as it was found that Zika infection during pregnancy drastically increased the occurrence of a rare neurodevelopmental disorder known as microcephaly. Though many public health measures have been taken to protect against the emergent virus, including the ongoing development of a vaccine, the virus continues to spread, recently appearing in an ongoing outbreak in India that started in 2018.
    The results of a recent study, however, may complicate these efforts. The report, published February 8th in the journal Immunity, has provided evidence that prior Dengue infection may be linked with more severe outcomes from Zika infection. Zika and Dengue are closely related, and this effect, where prior exposure to one predisposes an individual to worse outcomes from the other, is known to occur between various strains of Dengue. The study, conducted in pregnant mice, was far from conclusive, but it could possibly indicate that a potential Zika vaccine, like recent Dengue preventative “Dengvaxia,” could cause this effect, and lead to more harm than good.
      This early warning is not as clear as it may seem. A report from the NIH just 2 weeks ago found a seemingly opposite effect; that prior Dengue infection can lead to immunity to Zika infection. Only time, and future experimentation, will reveal the true safety of a potential Zika preventative.
-J Cole Holderman (Dengue Aficionado)
Report: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190208131409.htm
Paper 1:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1002726
Paper 2:https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1074761319300287

Mono and Schizophrenia?

New research from Johns Hopkins Medicine and Sheppard Pratt Health System shows an association between schizophrenia and a heightened immune response to Epstein-Barr Virus, a viral species in the family Herpesviridae that causes mononucleosis. EBV causes flu-like symptoms, extreme fatigue, and swollen lymph nodes; its typically transmitted through oral contact such as kissing. Rarely, EBV can spread to the central nervous system and cause severe, persistent infection. In a study among 743 participants -- 432 with a schizophrenia diagnosis and 311 without a history of a psychiatric disorder, scientists measured the antibodies for EBV, and related viruses including varicella, and herpes simplex-1. However, only EBV antibody levels differed between the two groups, suggesting that only EBV is associated with increased risk of schizophrenia. Researchers have two potential hypotheses for the cause of this correlation-- either, exposure to Epstein-Barr virus increases the risk of developing schizophrenia by impacting the nervous system in some way, or schizophrenia modifies the immune system in some way that makes individuals more susceptible to EBV. More research will be necessary to explore the mechanism behind this correlation, however, the topic doesn't lend itself to randomized control trial, arguably the most foolproof way to test hypotheses, because of the ethical ramifications involved. Future research may take the form of a prospective longitudinal study. Only time can tell whether this correlation proves to be causational. 

Reference: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/newsroom/news-releases/schizophrenia-linked-with-abnormal-immune-response-to-epstein-barr-virus

~Lisa Manzanete

Zika – what we're still learning

A recent CDC study suggests that Zika IgM may be detected within a human host for up to 12-19 months. Previous understanding was that the most the IgM could be detected in the body was up to 12 weeks. However, a recent study in Miami, Florida suggests we may have been very wrong. The study was conducted on 62 individuals who were infected by Zika in late 2016. After follow up tests during the last few years, the researchers found that 45 of the individuals (73%) had a detectable amount of the viral IgM. Furthermore, there were even 18 specimens collected from 16-19 months after the infection that still showed Zika virus IgM presence. While these results are preliminary and of a small sample size, the results suggest that Zika may be following a pattern similar to other viruses in Flaviviridae. Along with Zika IgM, the researchers also detected dengue virus neutralizing antibodies. These results make it slightly harder for people to be able to distinguish between different flavivirus infections as well as results in more confusion of the timing of a Zika virus infection.

-Alexandra Ulmer

Source: https://www.contagionlive.com/news/zika-virus-igm-detected-12-to-19-months-following-infe-onset-study-finds
Study: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/25/2/18-1286_article

Equine Influenza Outbreak

The International Federation for Equestrian Sports (FEI) has issued a warning and guidelines about the equine influenza outbreak as there have been several confirmed outbreaks in Belgium, Germany, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Nigeria, and the US since the beginning of 2019. Equine influenza is highly contagious among horses and airborne virus can spread up to two kilometers. Horses that have been vaccinated and contract the disease will usually have mild symptoms and will recover quickly. But horses that have not been vaccinated may be more severely afflicted. While this is certainly a challenge for the horses themselves, it does make one wonder - how likely is is that a human could contract influenza from a sick horse? According to an evidence review on whether equine influenza is zoonotic, some of the top papers in the field report findings that could support the theory that equine influenza does cross species from horse to humans once in awhile. Specifically, they report serological data showing that some people have antibodies against H3N8 EIV and that some people develop flu-like symptoms after coming in contact with an afflicted horse. It is also thought by some researchers that cross species transmission was the other way around - that human influenza type A was responsible for jumping to horses and causing equine influenza.

Renata Starbird

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5039430/
https://www.equnews.com/miscellaneous/fei-issues-guidelines-on-equine-influenza-outbreak/

Dengue as the new Vaccinia: newly discovered cross-reactivity of DENV and Zika Virus

The most recent Zika Virus (ZIKV) outbreak in the Americas has motivated extensive research into not only the biochemistry of this peculiar flavivirus, but also into risk factors for ZIKV infection and research to understand the spread of ZIKV. Particularly of note, research from Rodriguez-Barraquer et al. published February 8^th suggests that prior Dengue infection and corresponding immune-reactivity to DENV significantly reduces the risk of ZIKV infection in the epicenter of this 2015 ZIKV outbreak. Despite a 73% attack rate of ZIKV in this community, it was found that individuals who had pre-existing antibodies to DENV had lower risk of both infection and in the case of infection, more mild and manageable symptoms.

Development of an IgG3 test, which was able to distinguish DENV from ZIKV, allowed for researchers to track the long-term development of the ZIKV outbreak within this context. The use of this assay was thoroughly confirmed for specificity and sensitivity, and was able to show subtle trends in the seropositivity of this population for individually Zika and Dengue. In doing so, a trend of those individuals with Dengue seropositivity were shown to have upwards of a 35% reduction in odds of being ZIKV-positive after the outbreak. Additionally, this dependence was approximately linear with respect to DENV antibody concentrations in the body, suggesting that higher reactivity to DENV is correlated with even lower rates of ZIKV infection. This was emphasized further when it was confirmed that ZIKV attack rates were higher in urban regions, where DENV infection is less common than in the studied epicenters (usually lying on the borders of forests/mosquito habitats and smaller towns).

Epidemiologically, this correlation was proposed to be related to the dissipation of ZIKV infection, as the regions where ZIKV was most common were areas also endemic for Dengue infection. Additionally, the nature of Dengue IgG3 antibodies, as detected in the used assays, are known to persist for up to 6 months, suggesting that more recent infection (which would result in higher titers of antibody) was more closely related to a lack of ZIKV infection. These conclusions warrant further research as they suggest that an effective DENV vaccine would also be preventative for ZIKV infection. However, this is a major challenge for researchers as the strains of DENV known to infect humans are known to cause much worse symptoms of Dengue-related disease when successive infections of DENV take place. That is, someone already infected with Dengue once is likely to be asymptomatic, whereas if that person gets exposed to a different strain of DENV they are significantly more likely to suffer from Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever or Dengue Shock Syndrome. This does suggest that potentially ZIKV may be protective against DENV, which would need to be experimentally evaluated to determine the potential for these serious infections. Regardless of the approach, this research develops a unique lens for cross-reactivity of these flaviviruses and lends itself to further research to make use of this reactivity in potential vaccines to these serious and poorly understood diseases.

~Kyle Enriquez

Sources:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190207142213.htm

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/363/6427/607

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-11-evidence-dengue-infection-severe-due.html

The Second Deadliest Ebola Outbreak is Happening Right Now......

The death toll from the Ebola outbreak sweeping the Democratic Republic of Congo has surpassed 500 since the outbreak was declared roughly six months ago. The majority of cases are being reported from the Katwa region. Cases continue to be reported from other regions including Beni and Oicha, but swift efforts have led to containment and prevention of geographical spread.



The outbreak in Katwa is partly driven by nosocomial transmission, both in private and public health care settings. Further influencing the spread of the disease is the ongoing humanitarian conflict and security concerns that limit the distribution of aid. There are also concurrent epidemics of cholera, vaccine-derived poliomyelitis and malaria. DRC's location and transportation links between Uganda, Rawanda and South Sudan also leaves open the possibility for international transmission.
Currently, an experimental rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine, made from a recombinant VSV from the Rhabdoviridae family to express a glycoprotein natire to the Zaire Ebolavirus, is being deployed in ring vaccination strategy and has demonstrated promising efficacy.

-Riasoya Jodah

Why Measles is so Contagious

I have recently been following the measles epidemic in Washington. I knew that it was largely because of a failure of people to vaccinate, and that this lack of vaccination can provide a host pool that can allow the disease to mutate. What I didn't realize was how quickly herpes spreads. This article compares the r naught values of different diseases to compare how contagious different diseases are. For example, Ebola (which is famed for being massively contagious) has a r naught value of about 2. Measles, on the other hand, has an r naught of 18-20, depending on the strain. Measles uses respiratory transmission, so it can be suspended in the air for a very long time.

Anja Zehfuss

Study Finds Attempts to Curb Opioid Abuse led to Surge in Hepatitis C

A new study from RAND found that states with above average rates of Oxycontin miuse saw hepatitis C infections increase three times as fast as other states after the drug was reformulated in 2010 to make it harder to abuse. While the reformulation made abusing the drug via injection or inhalation more difficult, researchers theorize that it caused abusers to switch towards injection heroin. Injection is a key risk factor for the transmission of Hepatitis C, which is the leading cause of infectious disease death in the US. 

The research report confirms public health experts' belief that the opioid crisis was to blame for the increase in hepatitis C infection rates, which were found to increase by 222% in above-median states and 75% in below-median states. If undiagnosed and untreated, widespread cases of hepatitis C could exacerbate the opioid crisis. "These results show that efforts to deter misuse of opioids can have unintended, long-term public health consequences," said David Powell, the study's lead author.

For more details, see: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190204172214.htm

-Ed

Measles Outbreak in the Philippines

The Philippines expanded the area of a measles outbreak declared on Thursday from the densely populated capital of Manila to surrounding regions in the northern and southern parts of Luzon. In recent weeks, there has been a gradual increase in infections and death due to measles.

The Department of Health said that the virus has killed 55 children 4 years-old or younger at San Lazaro Hospital in Manila since the beginning of the year. According to the Epidemiology Bureau, there were 196 cases of measles in Manila from January 1st to 19th. In the same period last year, there were only 20 cases.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque said, "We are expanding the outbreak from metro Manila to other regions as cases have increased in the past weeks and to strengthen surveillance of new cases, and alert mothers and caregivers to be more vigilant." He has also encouraged people to participate in a government-sponsored measles vaccination program, underscoring that the vaccinations had been "proven effective and safe."

Public trust in immunization programs in the Philippines was severely harmed in 2017 after the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur admitted that a dengue vaccine it had distributed in the country, Dengvaxia, could provoke a more dangerous form of dengue in people who never had the illness. Such events scared many parents from vaccinating their children against other diseases along with measles.

Spokesman for President Rodrigo Duterte Salvador Panelo said, "Even if you go house to house, if they believe that their children could die due to immunization, why would they have them immunized?"

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/07/world/asia/philippines-measles-outbreak.html



-- Caroline Aung

New Method to Improve Global Disease Surveillance

A new computational technique developed by researchers at the broad institute sets out to “fish” for human viruses. The technique, called “CATCH”, creates “baits” for known viruses and their strains, which allows us to even capture viruses that are in small abundance. CATCH will help small sequencing centers around the world to make the surveillance more efficient and cost-effective. This will be a game-changer in controlling disease outbreaks.

Before CATCH, scientists could try to detect low-abundance viruses, such as Zika, by analyzing all the genetic material in a sample, but inevitably some viral material was lost.

Now, users can design their own probes to find any combination of microbial species. They will draw their information from the National Center for Biotechnology Information’s GenBank sequence database and this information is updated as new strains are identified and added. Once the scientists have a set of probes, CATCH decides which ones are best to use based on what the user wants to find.

CATCH will allow disease surveillance centers to identify viral outbreaks and unclear causes of fevers, which is critical in areas such as Africa where there are many viruses circulating with similar clinical symptoms. It will be exciting to see the progress CATCH brings to our discovery and identification of viruses.

-Mailo Numazu

Source: https://www.genengnews.com/news/novel-method-can-help-conduct-global-disease-surveillance-more-effectively/

https://www.zmescience.com/science/virus-sequence-catch-tool-925265434/

Additional Uses for Adenovirus

Retinoblastoma is a childhood eye cancer that can be fatal if untreated, while chemotherapy treatment commonly leads to loss of sight. Recently, scientists have tested the cancer-targeting effects of viruses on retinoblastoma.

More specifically, Angel Montero Carcaboso of Barcelona, Spain genetically modified the adenovirus so that it could only reproduce inside the oncogenic cells in the retinoblastoma pathway.
Many animal trials were done with this modified virus. In rabbits, the virus triggered inflammation and fluid buildup in the eyes, but these signs subsided after 6 weeks and the virus did not seem to infect other organs or areas of the body. A second study on mice found that the eyes of mice infected with the tumor were able to survive the cancer twice as long as the control group.

Clinical trials have begun in two patients who have not responded to traditional chemotherapy and radiation. In one child whose eye eventually had to be removed, the virus was found to be reproducing in some tumor cells though not normal cells. In the second child, the virus was observed to shrink and destroy tumor fragments that are hard to target with chemotherapy.

For now, scientists agree these results are promising but are cautious of the possibility that the virus may be simply targeted and eliminated by our own immune systems. Additional clinical trials are ongoing.

For the full story, visit http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/01/cancer-slaying-virus-may-fight-childhood-eye-tumor

-Angela Wang

Could chickenpox be the missing link to an HIV vaccine?

New research form the University of Toronto indicates that Varicella-zoster virus (VZV), also known as chickenpox, may be a promising recombinant viral vector for delivery of foreign antigens including HIV, allowing for the creation of an HIV vaccine.  However, use of vectors from other infectious and disease-causing agents have come under renewed scrutiny after a trial with an HIV vaccine carried through an adenovirus vector lead to increased HIV risk in those who received the vaccine. This is thought to be associated with mucosal immune activation. Thus, it is particularly important to examine new potential vectors for their impact on immune activation. To test whether VSV might be a new viral vector candidate, forty-four Kenyan women who were already immune to chickenpox received the high-dose live attenuated chickenpox vaccine (Varicella Zoster Vaccine), and received monitoring of the expression of immune activation markers including CD38 and HLA-DR on CD4 T cells isolated from blood, cervix, and rectum, as well as the concentration of genital and intestinal cytokines. A group of 22 women were used to control for natural variation. VSV vaccination was found to have no measurable impact on any of the IA parameters measured at 4, 8 and 12 weeks after vaccination. This is promising data for the safety of a chimeric VSV and HIV vaccination and supports the value of continued research into developing such a vaccine. 

1. https://www.jci.org/articles/view/124473

~Lisa Manzanete

A Novel Cowpox Infection With Troubling Connotations

     A case report published in the CDC’s Emerging Infectious Disease Journal this month detailed a rather odd-case of cowpox in 2016. An unidentified patient was injured in the thorax by a sharp, metal guardpost that had previously been buried. Despite having no contact with domestic or wild animals, the patient began to present with symptoms of a severe cowpox infection, including skin irritation, mild-hepatitis, wound inflammation, and the signature pustules of poxviruses. However, the most surprising part of this cases is that the patient was previously vaccinated against smallpox. The implication, that an environmentally resistant strain of cowpox has by some means become vaccine resistant, is startling.

     The patient recovered after a 9-month treatment process, but this case is especially alarming in the context of other unusual poxviruses spreading throughout the world, including monkeypox outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with an 11% fatality rate, and pathogenic vaccinia outbreaks in Brazil and India. Only time will tell if these disparate outbreaks will begin to present a more pressing health concern.
-J. Cole Holderman- Strictly Better TA than Alexandra (who assisted with the production of this article)

The Paper: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/25/2/17-1433_article