Pre-existing immunity modulates responses to mRNA boosters
American Association of Immunologists (AAI)
When new COVID-19 vaccines were first administered two years ago, public health officials found an increase in cases of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle, particularly among young males who had been vaccinated with mRNA vaccines. It was unclear, however, what exactly was causing this reaction.
A study from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago found that parents with children who were not yet vaccinated against COVID-19 were most likely to vaccinate their child after reading the following hypothetical scenario.
A team of researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory recently published the most comprehensive study of global COVID-19 variant transitions, which showed significant diversity in variant spread around the globe related to vaccination rates, number of co-circulating variants and immunity from previous infection.
For millions of Americans that suffer from seasonal allergies (pollen and mold), climate change is exacerbating an earlier, longer, and overall worse allergy season.
Researchers have used Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source to characterize a set of broadly neutralizing antibodies effective against a wide range of coronaviruses.
While the coronavirus continues to infect people around the world, researchers at the University of Missouri have identified a specific protein inside the human body that plays a critical role in how the virus spreads from cell to cell after infection — a discovery that will help better understand the COVID-19 disease and could lead to the development of new antiviral drugs in the future.
A roundup of the latest medical discoveries and faculty news at Cedars-Sinai for April 2023.
Johns Hopkins Children’s Center researchers will present on numerous topics during the PAS 2023 meeting.
Researchers reporting in ACS Central Science have now developed a system that directly targets and degrades the SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA genome, reducing infection in mice. The method could be adapted to fight off many viruses, as well as treat various diseases.
Viruses like influenza A and Ebola invade human cells in a number of steps. In an interdisciplinary approach, research teams from Heidelberg University and Heidelberg University Hospital investigated the final stages of viral penetration using electron tomography and computer simulations.
Researcher will discuss the study which involved a sleeping aid known as suvorexant that is already approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for insomnia, hints at the potential of sleep medications to slow or stop the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.
A large-scale registry study in Finland has identified several factors associated with uptake of the first dose of COVID-19 vaccination. In particular, persons with low or no labor income and persons with mental health or substance abuse issues were less likely to vaccinate.
With the help of Argonne National Laboratory, Epstein-Barr Virus researchers identified a viral protein as a target for antiviral and vaccine development, as well as an antibody that might benefit the immunocompromised.
The Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health will host its annual World Malaria Day Symposium Tuesday, April 25, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. EDT. The theme is the blood stage of malaria, which is the most devastating phase of the disease. The event will take place in person in Baltimore with thirteen panelists. A remote option is available to journalists.
The National Institutes of Health trial to evaluate the mpox (previously known as monkeypox) vaccine JYNNEOS has now entered the next stage and is studying the immune responses to and the safety of the vaccine in adolescents. The George Washington University is one of 18 clinical trial sites across the United States that have launched this stage testing the JYNNEOS vaccine.
A recent Houston Methodist study may offer some guidance on when certain populations should get their next booster. A research team of computational medicine and data scientists from the Houston Methodist Research Institute predicted the immune response to COVID-19 vaccines with a math model they developed, and also found that current CDC dosing intervals may require customization to protect all individuals alike.
A new study from Huntsman Cancer Institute shows HPV-related cancers are more common in young adults who previously had cancer. This data shows the importance of educating patients about the HPV vaccine – a safe and effective way to prevent cancer.
The immuno-oncology (IO) clinical trial landscape is shifting in new directions. While the number of total clinical trials is down, there are healthy signs of innovation.
A cross-cultural comparison study is the first to investigate factors that influenced the decision to get the COVID-19 vaccine in an international sample of college students from the U.S., Israel and the Czech Republic. Results provide evidence of country-specific varying perceptions of susceptibly, severity, benefits and barriers associated with a virus and vaccine.
The university is participating in the effort to determine the efficacy of what could be the first vaccine to prevent Lyme disease in children ages 5 to 17
In November 2022, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) co-hosted a virtual workshop on the importance and challenges of developing mucosal vaccines for SARS-COV-2. The highlights of this workshop have now been published as a report in npj Vaccines.
New research led by the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health shows that bivalent COVID-19 boosters are still providing effective protection from hospitalization and death, even against the most recent omicron subvariants.
Testing the efficacy of a vaccine candidate is typically a long process, with the immune response of an animal model taking around two months. A multi-institution team is developing a method that is more than an order of magnitude faster.
Researchers reporting in ACS Central Science have developed a new testing platform that encapsulates B cells — some of the most important components of the immune system — into miniature “organoids” to make vaccine screening quicker and greatly reduce the number of animals needed for testing.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found a creative way to make a vaccine for norovirus, the leading cause of foodborne infections, by piggybacking on rotavirus, an unrelated virus for which there are already several highly effective vaccines.
Cell secretions like proteins, antibodies, and neurotransmitters play an essential role in immune response, metabolism, and communication between cells.
A study published April 11 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) evaluated two drugs that act on the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) as potential treatments for severe COVID-19. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes COVID-19, enters pulmonary and myocardial cells through binding of its spike protein to the human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). ACE2 is a vital enzyme that controls blood pressure and blood flow to multiple organs, including the lungs, heart and kidneys.
Ana Fernandez-Sesma, PhD, has been appointed Chair of the Department of Microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Fernandez-Sesma will direct all educational and research functions of the Department, while cultivating an academic culture that advances insights into virology, vaccinology, immunology, and microbiology, and encourages innovative approaches to teaching and mentoring.
May is Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month. Experts from the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology caution that pollen season is starting earlier and lasting longer than in past decades.
South Carolina residents were more hesitant than Americans as a whole to receive the COVID-19 vaccine during the fall of 2020, report researchers in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in the Journal of Psychiatry Research.
A team led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine, the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Scripps Research and the University of Chicago has identified an antibody that appears to block infection by all dominant variants of the virus that causes COVID-19, including Omicron, the most recent. Their discovery could lead to more potent vaccines and new antibody-based treatments.
After helping to develop and test new mRNA technologies for COVID-19 vaccines, University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) researchers and scientists are turning their attention to utilizing this innovative technology to ward off other infectious diseases like malaria and influenza.
Read about cutting-edge cancer research centered around elephant genes, a new clinical trial, and grants to study vaccination hesitance in the Mountain West as well as chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
People exposed to higher levels of air pollution before the pandemic had lower antibody responses to COVID-19 vaccines, according to a study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), an institution supported by “la Caixa” Foundation, in collaboration with the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP).
Missing crucial doses of medicines and vaccines could become a thing of the past thanks to Rice University bioengineers’ next-level technology for making time-released drugs.
A study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis shows that vaccinating people with updated boosters as new variants of the virus that cause COVID-19 emerge could shore up population immunity even as the virus mutates, and thereby prevent another deadly COVID-19 wave.
A new study led by Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) brings into sharper focus the structural details of the COVID-19 virus, revealing an elliptical shape that “breathes,” or changes shape, as it moves in the body.
Research by the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath, UK, along with colleagues at Universities of Oxford and Aberdeen, finds that trust in scientists has hugely increased overall since the COVID-19 pandemic, but that attitudes have also become more polarized. The study also found that people were more likely to take the COVID-19 vaccine if their trust in the science had increased.
Researchers found that, despite being heavily immunocompromised, haematology patients generate strong cellular immune responses against SARS-CoV-2 after vaccination, on par with that of healthy individuals.
The seasonal flu vaccine is less effective in some years than others. New St. Jude research showed one reason behind this lack of efficacy is the inclusion of flu strains with an unstable viral protein.
Recordings of media briefings will be posted by 10 a.m. Eastern Time on each day. Watch recorded media briefings at: www.acs.org/ACSSpring2023briefings.
From septic shock to sticker shock. Keep up with this ever-growing, changing sector. Below are some of the latest stories on healthcare on Newswise.
A team of scientists from the Renaissance School of Medicine (RSOM) at Stony Brook University have identified a distinct role of retinoic acid, a metabolite of vitamin A, during the immune response of the gut.
In addition to an antigen, many vaccines also contain substances, called adjuvants, which stimulate the immune system. By using computer-aided molecular design and machine learning, a Chinese research team has now developed two novel broad-spectrum adjuvants that can significantly amplify the immune response to vaccines.
Needles are an uncomfortable but necessary aspect of vaccination. But today, scientists report steps toward an alternative, relatively painless method that can deliver biological materials to cells by “shooting” them in with air. They will present their results at ACS Spring 2023.