August 30, 2010 by Project Staff
Photomicrographic detection of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) using indirect immunofluorescence technique. CDC/ Dr. H. Craig Lyerla
Before Robert Chanock, MD, joined the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in 1957, researchers had not identified a culprit for a constellation of serious respiratory illnesses that affected infants and children each year, particularly in the winter. Soon after Chanock joined NIAID’s Laboratory of Infectious diseases, however, he and his colleagues identified and named the virus: respiratory syncytial virus. RSV, as it is commonly known, is the most common cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia among American children less than one year of age.
When asked if he had any advice for parents worried about RSV, Chanock alluded to the virus’s tendency to spread during the winter and famously quipped (though he noted that there was some truth to the remark) that parents should have their babies in the spring. Through his research efforts, however, he and his colleagues provided a better form of protection against the virus: an antibody to protect against RSV in infants at high risk for RSV illnesses.
Throughout his career, a great deal of Chanock’s research was in the field of respiratory disease. He collaborated with other researchers to discover parainfluenza viruses that cause childhood respiratory illnesses, isolate strains of the virus that causes the common cold, and isolate one of the causes of bacterial pneumonia.
Delving into the world of vaccines, Chanock was one of a group of researchers to develop a vaccine against an adenovirus that caused respiratory illness–a vaccine that was licensed and used by the military–and contributed to the development of the first nasal spray vaccine for influenza. He also pushed for research to develop vaccines against dengue fever, with candidate vaccines from his program in clinical trials now.
Chanock passed away on July 31, 2010, at the age of 86. In a statement released on August 3, Anthony S. Fauci, MD, Director of NIAID, said “When I first was learning about infectious diseases, in medical school and residency, Bob’s papers and chapters popped up everywhere. The name ‘Chanock’ seemed synonymous with disease discovery… NIAID and NIH mourn the loss of Bob Chanock, an outstanding scientist whose innumerable contributions to the understanding of viral diseases helped make the world a healthier place for millions of people.”
Posted in: General, Public health, Vaccine Research
August 24, 2010 by Project Staff
Girl recovering from smallpox, The College of Physicians of Philadelphia
You might not be able to make it to Rio de Janeiro, but you can join the conference“Smallpox Eradication after 30 years: Lessons, Legacies and Innovations.” Organizers are the SabinVaccine Institute, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, and the Fogarty International Center. The conference dates are August 24-27.
Live streaming video and a conference schedule are available at this link. (Rio is one hour later than Eastern Daylight Time.) We’re especially looking forward to Session 1, Lessons from Smallpox-Endemic countries: Illuminating experiences in program conception and execution, which is moderated by DA Henderson, MD. See our interview with him here: The History of Vaccines Interviews DA Henderson, MD.
Follow the smallpox symposium on Twitter using the hashtag #Smallpox2010.
Posted in: Smallpox
August 20, 2010 by Project Staff
This colorized 2005 scanning electron micrograph (SEM) depicted numerous clumps of MRSA bacteria. Magnified 2390x. Credit: CDC/ Jeff Hageman, M.H.S.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, better known as MRSA and commonly pronounced “MER-sah,” is a serious problem in hospital settings. Although this particular type of S. aureus bacteria does infect people outside of medical facilities (typically referred to as “community-acquired infection”) it is more serious in healthcare environments, causing potentially life-threatening infection. In 2005, more than 18,000 people died during hospital stays related to serious MRSA infection.
As bacteria continue to develop resistance to more and more antibiotics, the development of vaccines to prevent infection with resistant bacteria becomes more important. Now, researchers at the University of Chicago have identified a possible approach for the development of a vaccine against MRSA.
MRSA has proved difficult as a vaccine target because of its ability to suppress the body’s immune response. Most vaccines exploit the fact that the immune system will respond in a certain way in order to confer protection against future disease. Even natural MRSA infection, however, does not confer such future immunity, making vaccine development against it tricky.
Olaf Schneewind, PhD (professor and chair of microbiology at the University of Chicago) and colleagues focused on two clotting factors that MRSA utilizes in order to “hide” from the body’s immune system. After the bacteria enters the bloodstream, it creates abscesses in which to multiply. Inside these abscesses, the bacteria is protected from the body’s immune system and able to multiply; days later, the abscesses burst, and even more bacteria are released back into the bloodstream.
Schneewind and colleagues studied two clotting factors: coagulase (Coa) and von Willebrand factor binding protein (vWbp), both used by MRSA in order to create abscesses. The researchers demonstrated that mutant versions of S. aureus without Coa and vWbp are unable to create abscesses, and thus unable to multiply in great numbers. Then, by injecting mice with versions of the clotting factors purified from an E. coli strain, the researchers used the clotting factors as subunit vaccine antigens, prompting the mice’s immune systems to generate antibodies against them. When the mice were exposed to various S. aureus strains in the future, the antibodies provided some protection against disease.
Although this research is preliminary and it’s not known whether the same approach will work for humans, the work highlights a potential target for a MRSA vaccine. The researchers are already working to combine the clotting factor antibody approach with other methods their group has studied in providing protection against MRSA.
Sources and More Information
Cheng AG, McAdow M, Kim HK, Bae T, Missiakas DM, et al. 2010 Contribution of Coagulases towards Staphylococcus aureus Disease and Protective Immunity. PLoS Pathog 6(8): e1001036. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1001036
http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.ppat.1001036
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: MRSA Infections
http://www.cdc.gov/mrsa/
Posted in: MRSA, Public health, Vaccine Research
August 16, 2010 by Project Staff
Images from the History of Medicine (NLM)
This week we’ve heard about two far-flung imported measles cases. One is in our backyard: a 47-year-old Pennsylvania woman traveled to Malawi, which has been experiencing a measles outbreak, and brought a case home with her. Another brings back memories of the 2008 San Diego measles outbreak: an unvaccinated child traveled to Europe and returned with the illness.
In the San Diego case, authorities have identified five locations where people may have been exposed to the virus. The story is here.
The Pennsylvania case was described in a notice from a county health department, listing seven locations where the traveler may have exposed others between July 27-August 3, including the Philadelphia International Airport and a suburban Philadelphia Whole Foods grocery store. An email sent out by a local politician claimed that the Whole Foods had agreed to post a sign notifying customers of the possible exposure. On a quick visit to the store, however, I failed to find the sign, and the staff I talked to there didn’t know about the incident.
The notice from the Montgomery County (PA) Health Department is here. It lists the groups of people who are susceptible to measles:
- Infants who are too young to have been immunized (less than one year of age).
- Persons who were vaccinated with an inactivated vaccine, which was used from1963 through 1967, and have not been revaccinated.
- Some persons born after 1957 who have only received one dose of vaccine.
- Those who have refused vaccination.
- Those from areas of the world where there is low vaccine coverage or circulating measles.
- Immune-compromised persons, such as organ transplant recipients, patients receiving chemotherapy and people living with HIV/AIDS who have impaired immune systems.
People born before 1957 are generally assumed to be immune to measles.
So far, no other cases of illness have been associated with the importations.
Posted in: Measles, Public health
August 13, 2010 by Project Staff
Tags from Robert Abbe's Pasteur Collection, The College of Physicians of Philadelphia
Darin Hayton, PhD, recently wrote a post for The Philadelphia Area Center for the History of Science blog about Marie Curie’s 1923 visit to The College of Physicians of Philadelphia. While here, Curie presented the College with her piezo-electric apparatus (which later needed to be decontaminated). At this event, Robert Abbe, about whom we have written, donated to the College his collection of Louis Pasteur memorabilia.
Please take a look: History of Science in Philadelphia: Curie’s Early Piezo-Electric Apparatus
Many of the items from the Curie and Pasteur collections are on display in the lobby of the College, and others are held in the Historical Medical Library.
Posted in: Historical Medical Library
