Whooping cough is currently seeing resurgence in countries despite high vaccine coverage. There is considerable variation in subject-specific response to infection and vaccine efficacy, but little is known about the role of human genetics. We carried out a case-control genome-wide association study of adult or parent-reported history of whooping cough in two cohorts from the UK: the ALSPAC coho...

For over 10 years, the test-negative case-control design is used for a timely and reliable estimation of seasonal influenza vaccine performance. Influenza vaccine effectiveness (VE) varies significantly by influenza type and subtype. Therefore, the calculation of type/subtype specific VE estimates is essential, as the calculation of an overall protective effect could be misleading if several ty...

Recently Nickle et al. introduced a new model of genetic diversity that summarizes a large input dataset into a short sequence containing overlapping subsequences from the dataset. This model has direct applications to rational vaccine design. In this paper we formally investigate the combinatorics of the vaccine optimization problem. Here the vaccine is constructed as a sequence S of amino-aci...

BACKGROUND Minimal influenza surveillance has been carried out in sub-Saharan Africa to provide information on circulating influenza subtypes for the purpose of vaccine production and monitoring trends in virus spread and mutations. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to investigate a surveillance program in Kenya to isolate and characterize influenza viruses. RESULTS In the 2006-2007 influ...

To study genetic changes underlying myxoma virus evolution in its new host, the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), we sequenced selected genomic regions of nine recent virulent field strains and a live attenuated vaccine strain ("MAV", Germany). DNA was extracted from cell culture passaged myxoma virus. A total of 4863 bp (approximately 3% of the genome) of 10 regions spanning 12 genes of...

Vitamin D (VitD), which is well known for its classic role in the maintenance of bone mineral density, has now become increasingly studied for its extra-skeletal roles. It has an important influence on the body's immune system and modulates both innate and adaptive immunity and regulates the inflammatory cascade. In this review our aim was to describe how VitD might influence immune responsiven...

Spread of antibiotic resistance is mediated by clonal lineages of bacteria that besides being resistant also possess other properties promoting their success. Some vaccines already in use, such as the pneumococcal conjugate vaccines, have had an effect on these successful clones, but at the same time have allowed for the expansion and resistance evolution of previously minor clones not covered ...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW Treatments for malignant glioma, the most lethal and common primary brain tumor, are undergoing a dramatic evolution led by biological and technological advancements. This review focuses on developments in novel areas of gene therapy and immunotherapy, particularly vaccine development. RECENT FINDINGS Advances in basic research of antigen-presenting cells and applications of...

A new generation of vaccines containing multiple protein components that aim to provide broad protection against serogroup B meningococci has been developed. One candidate, 4CMenB (4 Component MenB), has been approved by the European Medicines Agency, but is predicted to provide at most 70-80 % strain coverage; hence there is a need for second-generation vaccines that achieve higher levels of c...

BCG vaccine is usually considered to be safe though rarely serious complications have also been reported, often incriminating contamination of the seed strain with pathogenic Mycobacterium tuberculosis. In such circumstances, it becomes prudent to rule out the contamination of the vaccine seed. M. bovis BCG can be confirmed by the absence of nitrate reductase, negative niacin test, and resistan...