Browsing by Subject "vaccines"
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Item Activation of Dendritic Cells by Soypeptide Lunasin: Implication in Vaccine Adjuvant(Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2014-04-11) Flores, Sarah; Dong, Melissa; Tung, Chun-Yu; Chang, Hua-ChenAdjuvants enhance the immunogenicity of vaccines and improve the immune responses. Although many adjuvants are currently used in research, FDA approved aluminum salt (Alum) remains the most often used in human vaccines. Alum is known to promote the Th2 immune response and enhance antibody production, but is less efficient on eliciting Th1 and CTL cellular responses. Thus, it is prudent to improve the effectiveness of current adjuvants or to develop a novel alternative adjuvant. We have recently identified lunasin, a seed peptide from soybeans, as a novel immune modulator. The objective is to define the effectiveness of lunasin peptide as an adjuvant that can enhance the protective immunity of vaccines. Our studies have revealed stimulatory effects of lunasin on dendritic cells (DCs) by regulating expression of a number of genes that are important for immune responses. Lunasin-treated human conventional DCs (cDCs) not only expressed elevated levels of co-stimulatory molecules (CD86) but also exhibited up-regulation of chemokines (CCL2, CCL3, CCL4) and cytokine (IL-1β). To determine the function of lunasin-treated cDCs, these cells were co-cultured with allogeneic human peripheral blood CD4+ T cells for 7 days in the mixed lymphocyte reaction. Lunasin-treated cDCs induced almost 2-fold higher proliferation of allogeneic CD4+ T cells when comparing with a sham treatment. To verify the in vivo effects, lunasin was administered into mice. Increased CD86 expression was found in cDCs from spleens of mice treated with lunasin. Furthermore, mice vaccinated with lunasin-adjuvanted ovalbumin (OVA) had reduced tumor growth following challenging with OVA-expressing A20 B-lymphoma cells. Taken together, our data suggest that lunasin may act as a vaccine adjuvant by targeting DCs to enhance and modulate the immune responses to antigens.Item Center for HPV Research at IUPUI(Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2013-04-05) Zimet, Gregory; Fortenberry, J. Dennis; Buckley, Katherine E.Human Papillomavirus (HPV) infection is highly prevalent among women and men and is associated with a number of diseases including genital warts, cervical cancers, other anogenital cancers in both men and women, and cancers of the head and neck. HPV infections are also associated with millions of dollars in annual health care costs. Two vaccines have been developed to prevent HPV infection. Both are approved for use in females ages 9 through 26, and one vaccine is approved for use in 9 to 26 year old males as well. Both vaccines are efficacious, safe, and cost-effective. Despite the great promise of HPV vaccines, vaccination rates in the U.S. are much lower than desired, with 2011 data indicating that 53% of 13-17 year old females received one or more doses and only 37% completed the 3-dose series. The ongoing medical, psychosocial, and financial costs of HPV infection indicate the need for comprehensive, cross-disciplinary research efforts coordinated with community outreach. We have established the Center for Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Research at IUPUI; which fosters cohesion and collaboration among investigators from multiple disciplines and departments at IUPUI, IU Bloomington, and University of Notre Dame pursuing HPV-related research. This group of accomplished senior faculty and promising junior scholars represents a growing synergy between basic, clinical, and social/behavioral sciences. The Center for HPV Research will provide formal infrastructure and resources for pilot research projects, and a collaborative environment for development of proposals for external funding. By capitalizing on the unique strengths of an internationally recognized faculty and IUPUI’s remarkable culture of collaborative and interdisciplinary research, we will establish a world-class center for HPV research, research training, and research translation. The overall mission of the Center for HPV Research will be to improve understanding of HPV transmission, infection, and prevention of HPV infection and its consequences.Item How Culture Wars Delay Herd Immunity: Christian Nationalism and Anti-vaccine Attitudes(Sage, 2020) Whitehead, Andrew L.; Perry, Samuel L.; Sociology, School of Liberal ArtsPrior research demonstrates that a number of cultural factors—including politics and religion—are significantly associated with anti-vaccine attitudes. This is consequential because herd immunity is compromised when large portions of a population resist vaccination. Using a nationally representative sample of American adults that contains a battery of questions exploring views about vaccines, the authors demonstrate how a pervasive ideology that rejects scientific authority and promotes allegiance to conservative political leaders—what we and others call Christian nationalism—is consistently one of the two strongest predictors of anti-vaccine attitudes, stronger than political or religious characteristics considered separately. Results suggest that as Americans evaluate decisions to vaccinate themselves or their children, those who strongly embrace Christian nationalism—close to a quarter of the population—will be much more likely to abstain, potentially prolonging the threat of certain illnesses. The authors conclude by discussing the immediate implications of these findings for a possible coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine.Item Improving Adolescent Immunization Coverage: The Time to Act Is Now(Elsevier, 2017-11) Klein, Judy; Tan, Litjen; Zimet, Gregory D.; Pediatrics, School of MedicineAdolescent immunization rates continue to lag far behind infant immunization rates and millions of adolescents remain unprotected from serious and potentially deadly diseases. Adolescent Immunization: Understanding Challenges and Framing Solutions for Healthcare Providers, a whitepaper issued by the UNITY Consortium identifies best practices and common elements among successful adolescent immunization initiatives. The whitepaper, a collaboration of the group’s members, liaisons and invited experts, outlines the INSPECT(Immunization Neighborhood, Sharing, Platform, Educate, Champions and Talk) Imperatives, a call to action urging healthcare providers to increase adolescent immunization coverage rates by improving in one or more of the following areas: (1) Access -maximize opportunities for vaccination and avoid missed opportunities; (2) Education - educate parents and teens to further understanding of vaccines and to elevate prioritization; (3) Advocacy – guide healthcare providers to make confident, concise recommendations for all CDC-recommended adolescent vaccines, along with developing immunization champions who advocate for adolescent immunization within their practice or network; (4) Systems - advance technology, including the use of electronic immunization information systems (IIS), implement standing orders and other tools that improve efficiencies; and (5) Measurement - improve knowledge (and dissemination) of provider and practice progress on meeting adolescent immunization goals (e.g. benchmarking, performance reports).Item Is There a Role for Immunotherapy in Prostate Cancer?(MDPI, 2020-09-08) Rizzo, Alessandro; Mollica, Veronica; Cimadamore, Alessia; Santoni, Matteo; Scarpelli, Marina; Giunchi, Francesca; Cheng, Liang; Lopez-Beltran, Antonio; Fiorentino, Michelangelo; Montironi, Rodolfo; Massari, Francesco; Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, School of MedicineIn the last decade, immunotherapy has revolutionized the treatment landscape of several hematological and solid malignancies, reporting unprecedented response rates. Unfortunately, this is not the case for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), as several phase I and II trials assessing programmed death receptor 1 (PD-1) and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4) inhibitors have shown limited benefits. Moreover, despite sipuleucel-T representing the only cancer vaccine approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for mCRPC following the results of the IMPACT trial, the use of this agent is relatively limited in everyday clinical practice. The identification of specific histological and molecular biomarkers that could predict response to immunotherapy represents one of the current challenges, with an aim to detect subgroups of mCRPC patients who may benefit from immune checkpoint monoclonal antibodies as monotherapy or in combination with other anticancer agents. Several unanswered questions remain, including the following: is there—or will there ever be—a role for immunotherapy in prostate cancer? In this review, we aim at underlining the failures and promises of immunotherapy in prostate cancer, summarizing the current state of art regarding cancer vaccines and immune checkpoint monoclonal antibodies, and discussing future research directions in this immunologically “cold” malignancy.Item Legislative Prescriptions for Controlling Non-medical Vaccine Exemptions(JAMA, 2015-01) Yang, Y. Tony; Silverman, Ross D.; Department of Health Policy and Management, Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public HealthItem Population-Level Effects of Human Papillomavirus Vaccination Programs on Infections with Nonvaccine Genotypes.(CDC, 2016-10) Mesher, David; Soldan, Kate; Lehtinen, Matti; Beddows, Simon; Brisson, Marc; Brotherton, Julia M. L.; Chow, Eric P. F.; Cummings, Teresa; Drolet, Mélanie; Fairley, Christopher K.; Garland, Suzanne M.; Kahn, Jessica A.; Kavanagh, Kimberley; Markowitz, Lauri; Pollock, Kevin G.; Söderlund-Strand, Anna; Sonnenberg, Pam; Tabrizi, Sepehr N.; Tanton, Clare; Unger, Elizabeth; Thomas, Sara L.; Department of Pediatrics, IU School of MedicineAfter introduction of vaccination, some prevalences of nonvaccine types changed, without clear evidence for type replacement.Item Understanding vaccines: what they are, how they work(2003-07) National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (U.S.)Background information on vaccines and vaccination. Includes an extensive glossary.