DNA vaccines are a promising method of immunization against biothreats and emerging infections because they are relatively easy to design, manufacture, store and distribute. However, immunization with DNA vaccines using conventional delivery methods often fails to induce consistent, robust immune responses, especially in species larger than the mouse. Intramuscular (i.m.) delivery of a plasmid ...

Differences in in vivo growth rates of Bacillus anthracis in the bodies of infected rats and guinea pigs showed the effect of innate species resistance. The effect of two levels of immunity imposed on these hosts demonstrated that, as the degree of immunity increased, the growth rate of organisms decreased and was accompanied by a decrease in terminal population. It was shown that growth rates ...

The measles, mumps, and rubel-la vaccine may not be as great a bogeyman as recent media coverage suggests. Research by the market research organisation MORI shows that people worry more about biological weapons, the genetic modification of food and animals, bovine spongiform encephalopathy and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, organ transplants from animals to humans, gene therapy, and health problems...

BACKGROUND Medical countermeasures against biological warfare include the use of vaccines for anthrax and plague, which require repeated dosing and adjuvant to achieve adequate protection from threats such as inhalational anthrax and pneumonic plague. Despite the widespread use of these measures in preparation for recent military deployments, little is known about the cell-mediated immune respo...

BACKGROUND Presently, few data exist on the level and duration of anti-protective antigen (PA) IgG in vaccinated livestock. Various adaptation of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) have been developed in studies to assess immune response following vaccination, albeit mostly in laboratory rodent models. The quantitative anti-anthrax IgG ELISA in this study describes a method of enumerat...

Background: Anthrax is a zoonotic infectious disease caused by Bacillus anthracis. Investigating the spatiotemporal characteristics of anthrax and impact meteorological factors on incidence helpful for prevention control anthrax. Methods: At first, we applied Granger causality test to explore transmission between counties cities Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu P...

Anthrax vaccine, adsorbed (AVA) is a vaccine containing aluminum hydroxide that is administered as six subcutaneous (s.q.) doses over 18 months. It is the only aluminum hydroxide licensed for s.q. administration. To optimize the vaccination schedule and route of administration, a prospective pilot study comparing the use of fewer doses administered intramuscularly (i.m.) as well as s.q. with th...

The currently available commercial human anthrax vaccine requires multiple injections for efficacy and has side effects due to its alum adjuvant. These factors limit its utility when immunizing exposed populations in emergent situations. We evaluated a novel mucosal adjuvant that consists of a nontoxic, water-in-oil nanoemulsion (NE). This material does not contain a proinflammatory component b...