Word: vaccinia
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...months ago, DynPort moved a new smallpox vaccine through a Phase I test--a hurdle that several other companies have also cleared in recent months with their own vaccines. And the company's vaccinia immune globulin, VIG, which has completed the second of its three Phase I trials, could make smallpox vaccines more useful by countering their potentially dangerous effects, which include infection and even death...
...tricky issue because this particular vaccine is one of medicine's most dangerous. It doesn't contain the smallpox virus, but it does use a live version of a related one, called vaccinia, that can make you sick and, in rare instances, kill you. Most people just get a blister at the injection site and maybe some swelling of the arm. Others will feel tired or develop a low-grade fever; about a third will feel ill enough to miss work or school. Out of 1 million people, between 15 and 60 will develop serious complications, including encephalitis (swelling...
...virus was supposed to prevent. For this and a host of other reasons, most AIDS researchers argue that the only prudent strategy is to concoct a hybrid vaccine, putting the key features of a disabled AIDS virus into something more benign than a retrovirus. Among the leading candidates: the vaccinia virus that successfully wiped out smallpox...
...test vaccines on humans. Testing is already being done by Dr. Daniel Zagury of Paris' Pierre and Marie Curie University. Zagury included himself among twelve healthy people who received an experimental vaccine made up of a portion of the AIDS virus inserted into a larger, usually harmless virus called vaccinia. They also received a booster shot of their own cells that had been treated with the vaccinia. The volunteers, he reported, showed signs of antibodies to the AIDS virus. Nonetheless, warned Zagury, "we do not want to give false hopes...
...probably quite small. The vaccine he used, based on the work of NIH Immunologist Bernard Moss, contained only a tiny portion of genetic material from the AIDS virus. This material was inserted into the genes of a larger, harmless virus, which served as a carrier. (The larger virus was vaccinia, once commonly used to prevent smallpox.) When tested in baboons and a chimp for one year, this hybrid stimulated the animals to produce antibodies not only to vaccinia but to the AIDS virus, with no apparent side effects...