In the second of my ongoing series of direct-to-Facepunch news articles based on primary research, I bring you a report on the development of a novel process of producing Influenza Vaccines [i]in vitro.[/i]
This development, spearheaded by a team based at Centro de Biotecnología-FEMSA, Tecnológico de Monterrey in Monterey, Mexico, could lead to the alleviation of a long-standing problem within vaccine development.
The current method of producing vaccines involves the transfection of embryonated chicken eggs, after this transfection takes place, propagation must occur. This is a slow process, which then requires further processing and purification in order to isolate the main antigenic protein of hemagglutinin (HA) from the egg. This process also requires one egg per vaccine dose. This means that in order to vaccinate the United States successfully, 150 Million of these transfected eggs would need to be produced.
This obviously represents a significant challenge in pandemic vaccine development and rollout, severely limiting the pace at which vaccination can occur.
In this paper, the research team describes a method of recombinant production of hemagglutinin receptor binding domain in [i]Escherichia coli.[/i] This protein is a highly conserved region of the Influenza A/H1N1/2009 viral particle. Although this is not as complete as the proteins produced in the egg production method, it is still suitably immunogenic in the ferret model.
Protein production within [i]E. coli[/i] was verified using an [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SDS-PAGE]SDS-PAGE[/url] assay, which shows the molecular weight of proteins.
[img]http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/88/sdspage.png[/img]
Fig. 1 (Above) Shows the presence of the targeted protein in samples five through eight, in varying amounts of success. These differing clonal lines were generated using slightly differing methods of recombinant cloning.
After the verification of the protein production was completed, they purified the protein using affinity chromatography. (A process that uses biological processes to purify a substrate.) Following this purification, they tested the immunogenic activity of the sera produced by patients infected with Influenza A/H1N1/2009.
[tab]Here in Fig 2., we see the activity of antibodies present in the sera of patients positive for Influenza A/H1N1/2009 (Third Group) as measured by ELISA.[/tab][img]http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/8281/journalpone0011694g005.png[/img]
This testing validated the hypothesis that this particle would still illicit an immunogenic challenge similar to the full virus. This, along with the data obtained in the ferrets which I'm loathe to go in to here, proves that if administered along with an adjuvant (Increases Immune Response) of some type, the methodology outlined in this paper could be suitable for pandemic vaccine response. Possibly reducing our response time to pandemics down from many months to simply a few weeks.
Original Paper:
Aguilar-Yáñez JM, Portillo-Lara R, Mendoza-Ochoa GI, García-Echauri SA, López-Pacheco F, et al. 2010 [u]An Influenza A/H1N1/2009 Hemagglutinin Vaccine Produced in Escherichia coli.[/u] [i]PLoS ONE[/i] 5(7): e11694. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0011694
I don't think this counts as news sweetie.
The fuck did I just read?
[QUOTE=Adsone;23588552]I don't think this counts as news sweetie.[/QUOTE]
You didn't read it, did you? It's a recent development, and possibly a very, very important one.
"Possibly reducing our response time to pandemics down from many months to simply a few weeks."
Gee, that's not substantial at all. Fucking hell, how stupid are you?
[QUOTE=Adsone;23588552]I don't think this counts as news sweetie.[/QUOTE]
we can make vaccines for several different types of influenza out of e. coli, the fuck you mean it isn't news
So, one less thing we don't needle to worry about?
I like these. Keep them coming.
[QUOTE=Vinze;23588579]So, one less thing we don't needle to worry about?[/QUOTE]
Possibly, yes. If it pans out and can scale well to new threats.
[QUOTE=Adsone;23588552]I don't think this counts as news sweetie.[/QUOTE]
The hell? Did you just call op "Sweetie"?
[QUOTE=BaconDioxide;23588601]I like these. Keep them coming.[/QUOTE]
It's hard finding substantial things like this in my field (Biotechnology). Advances are generally slow and not newsworthy enough, but interesting to people in the field.
[editline]09:19AM[/editline]
[QUOTE=Dr. Freeman;23588607]The hell? Did you just call op "Sweetie"?[/QUOTE]
I think they did. I don't know them, at all, I've never even seen them post.
[QUOTE=Kagrenak;23588603]Possibly, yes. If it pans out and can scale well to new threats.[/QUOTE]
Oh, that's good...
Uhhh...
I was just here to deliver a pun, can I go now? :ohdear:
[QUOTE=Vinze;23588633]Oh, that's good...
Uhhh...
I was just here to deliver a pun, can I go now? :ohdear:[/QUOTE]
Oh, I didn't even notice the pun in your post, I just read it as, "One less thing we need to worry about."
[QUOTE=Kagrenak;23588643]Oh, I didn't even notice the pun in your post, I just read it as, "One less thing we need to worry about."[/QUOTE]
Dammit! That was the best I could think of, since, it's kinda hard on this subject...
But you have e.coli in your anus.
Anyway, I think this is a great discovery.
:wtc:
[QUOTE=Kagrenak;23588620]
I think they did. I don't know them, at all, I've never even seen them post.[/QUOTE]
:geno:
Well a few eggs gotta get scrambled for us to survive :cool:
Wait what? so basically to make vaccines we need stuff from chicken eggs?.
[QUOTE=skifer;23590672]Wait what? so basically to make vaccines we need stuff from chicken eggs?.[/QUOTE]
As it is now, yes. We use chicken eggs, one per vaccine dose.
[QUOTE=Kagrenak;23588537]In the second of my ongoing series of direct-to-Facepunch news articles based on primary research, I bring you a report on the development of a novel process of producing Influenza Vaccines [I]in vitro.[/I]
This development, spearheaded by a team based at Centro de Biotecnología-FEMSA, Tecnológico de Monterrey in Monterey, Mexico, could lead to the alleviation of a long-standing problem within vaccine development.
The current method of producing vaccines involves the transfection of embryonated chicken eggs, after this transfection takes place, propagation must occur. This is a slow process, which then requires further processing and purification in order to isolate the main antigenic protein of hemagglutinin (HA) from the egg. This process also requires one egg per vaccine dose. This means that in order to vaccinate the United States successfully, 150 Million of these transfected eggs would need to be produced.
This obviously represents a significant challenge in pandemic vaccine development and rollout, severely limiting the pace at which vaccination can occur.
In this paper, the research team describes a method of recombinant production of hemagglutinin receptor binding domain in [I]Escherichia coli.[/I] This protein is a highly conserved region of the Influenza A/H1N1/2009 viral particle. Although this is not as complete as the proteins produced in the egg production method, it is still suitably immunogenic in the ferret model.
Protein production within [I]E. coli[/I] was verified using an [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SDS-PAGE"]SDS-PAGE[/URL] assay, which shows the molecular weight of proteins.
[IMG]http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/88/sdspage.png[/IMG]
Fig. 1 (Above) Shows the presence of the targeted protein in samples five through eight, in varying amounts of success. These differing clonal lines were generated using slightly differing methods of recombinant cloning.
After the verification of the protein production was completed, they purified the protein using affinity chromatography. (A process that uses biological processes to purify a substrate.) Following this purification, they tested the immunogenic activity of the sera produced by patients infected with Influenza A/H1N1/2009.
[tab]Here in Fig 2., we see the activity of antibodies present in the sera of patients positive for Influenza A/H1N1/2009 (Third Group) as measured by ELISA.[/tab][IMG]http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/8281/journalpone0011694g005.png[/IMG]
This testing validated the hypothesis that this particle would still illicit an immunogenic challenge similar to the full virus. This, along with the data obtained in the ferrets which I'm loathe to go in to here, proves that if administered along with an adjuvant (Increases Immune Response) of some type, the methodology outlined in this paper could be suitable for pandemic vaccine response. Possibly reducing our response time to pandemics down from many months to simply a few weeks.
Original Paper:
Aguilar-Yáñez JM, Portillo-Lara R, Mendoza-Ochoa GI, García-Echauri SA, López-Pacheco F, et al. 2010 [U]An Influenza A/H1N1/2009 Hemagglutinin Vaccine Produced in Escherichia coli.[/U] [I]PLoS ONE[/I] 5(7): e11694. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0011694[/QUOTE]
I love science. :science:
Also, the first poster after the OP is a retard.
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