Mayo Clinic discovers African-Americans respond better to rubella vaccine

Findings may help make immunizations more effective

2014-02-26

(Press-News.org) ROCHESTER, Minn. — Feb. 26, 2014 — Somali Americans develop twice the antibody response to rubella from the current vaccine compared to Caucasians in a new Mayo Clinic study on individualized aspects of immune response. A non-Somali, African-American cohort ranked next in immune response, still significantly higher than Caucasians, and Hispanic Americans in the study were least responsive to the vaccine. The findings appear in the journal Vaccine.

"This is fascinating," says Gregory Poland, M.D., Mayo Clinic vaccinologist and senior author of the study. "We don't know why these groups reacted so differently to the vaccine — that's a subject for further studies — but this new information will help us as we design the vaccines of the future. It will ultimately change how we practice medicine."

The researchers studied a sample of 1,100 healthy children and young adults in Rochester, as well as over 1,000 participants from the U.S. Naval Health Research Center in San Diego as the control group. The Navy members, aged 18 to 40, were all healthy and recently vaccinated, and represented a cross-section of ethnic groups. The study also looked at a subset of a recent immigrant population from Somalia in Rochester. The Minnesota case studies were done in cooperation with the Rochester Epidemiology Project.

The researchers hypothesized that race, sex or ethnicity might contribute to differences in immune response. They found no difference in gender—a surprise, says Dr. Poland, because in most studies women consistently have a better immune response to vaccines than men.

"The significance of the findings is that in the future we may be able to create vaccines for specific groups or even individuals based on their genomic and other characteristics," says Dr. Poland. "That may mean adjusting doses for some or being able to treat larger populations with the same vaccine if the dosage is less."

INFORMATION:

The research team includes first author Iana Haralambieva, M.D., Ph.D., Hannah Salk, Nathaniel Lambert, Ph.D., Inna Ovsyannikova, Ph.D., Richard Kennedy, Ph.D., Nathaniel Warner, and V. Shane Pankratz, Ph.D., all of Mayo Clinic.

The research was funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases-National Institutes of Health, and by Mayo Clinic.

Dr. Poland is the chair of a Safety Evaluation Committee for non-rubella vaccine trials being conducted by Merck Research Laboratories. Dr. Poland offers consultative advice on vaccine development to Merck & Co. Inc., CSL Biotherapies, Avianax, Sanofi Pasteur, Dynavax, Novartis Vaccines and Therapeutics, PAXVAX Inc., and Emergent Biosolutions. Drs. Poland and Ovsyannikova hold two patents related to vaccinia peptide research. These activities have been reviewed by the Mayo Clinic Conflict of Interest Review Board and are conducted in compliance with Mayo Clinic Conflict of Interest policies. This research has been reviewed by the Mayo Clinic Conflict of Interest Review Board and was conducted in compliance with Mayo Clinic Conflict of Interest policies.

About Mayo Clinic

Recognizing 150 years of serving humanity in 2014, Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit worldwide leader in medical care, research and education for people from all walks of life. For more information, visit 150years.mayoclinic.org, http://www.mayoclinic.org and newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org.

MEDIA CONTACT: Bob Nellis, Mayo clinic Public Affairs, 507-284-5005, newsbureau@mayo.edu

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

JILA physicists discover 'quantum droplet' in semiconductor

2014-02-26

BOULDER, Colo -- JILA physicists used an ultrafast laser and help from German theorists to discover a new semiconductor quasiparticle—a handful of smaller particles that briefly condense into a liquid-like droplet. Quasiparticles are composites of smaller particles that can be created inside solid materials and act together in a predictable way. A simple example is the exciton, a pairing, due to electrostatic forces, of an electron and a so-called "hole," a place in the material's energy structure where an electron could be, but isn't. The new quasiparticle, described ...

Pine forest particles appear out of thin air, influence climate

2014-02-26

Pine forests are especially magical places for atmospheric chemists. Coniferous trees give off pine-scented vapors that form particles, very quickly and seemingly out of nowhere. New research by German, Finnish and U.S. scientists elucidates the process by which gas wafting from coniferous trees creates particles that can reflect sunlight or promote cloud formation, both important climate feedbacks. The study is published Feb. 27 in Nature. "In many forested regions, you can go and observe particles apparently form from thin air. They're not emitted from anything, ...

A predictive fitness model for influenza

2014-02-26

Researchers at Columbia University and the University of Cologne have created a new model to successfully predict the evolution of the influenza virus from one year to the next. This advance in our understanding of influenza suggests a new, systematic way to select influenza vaccine strains. The findings appear in Nature on Feb. 26. The flu is one of the major infectious diseases in humans. Seasonal strains of the influenza A virus account for about half a million deaths per year. In a concerted effort, WHO and its Collaborating Centers have closely monitored the evolution ...

Sunburns strike twice

2014-02-26

Melanoma is particularly dangerous because it can form metastases in vital organs such as the lungs, liver or brain. UV radiation is considered to be the most significant triggering factor. An interdisciplinary team of researchers from the University Hospital and the LIMES Institute of the University of Bonn has now discovered that sunburns contribute to the development of this malignant disease not only through direct alteration of pigment cell genomes but also indirectly through inflammatory processes in the surrounding tissue. The results are now being published online ...

Major enigma solved in atmospheric chemistry

2014-02-26

According to their results, these extremely low-volatile organic compounds consist of relatively large molecules which contain an almost equal number of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen atoms. The scientists present a plausible explanation supported by numerous experimental findings of how these vapours are formed almost immediately when plant emissions (e.g. monoterpenes) are released into the air. The vapours can then condense on small aerosol particles (starting from clusters of only a few nanometres in diameter) suspended in the air, causing them to grow to around 100 nanometres ...

Is therapeutic hypothermia beneficial in all patients following cardiac arrest?

2014-02-26

New Rochelle, NY, February 26, 2014–Whole body cooling in comatose patients who have suffered a heart attack can limit the damage to brain tissue caused by the restoration of blood flow and oxygen. But new data indicate that in certain patients therapeutic hypothermia is less effective and may even worsen neurological outcomes, as described in an article in Therapeutic Hypothermia and Temperature Management, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Therapeutic Hypothermia and Temperature Management website at ...

Researchers find virtual computer-based world an effective learning environment

2014-02-26

(Boston)--Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) researchers have demonstrated the potential of using a virtual computer environment for distance healthcare education for an international audience that often has limited access to conventional teaching and training. In this pilot project led by John Wiecha, MD, corresponding author of the study and associate professor of family medicine at BUSM, a virtual world was created in which participants engaged in a learning activity by creating virtual avatars of themselves to navigate through a three-dimensional computer environment ...

Can a simple handshake predict cancer survival rates?

2014-02-26

Montreal, February 26, 2014 — New acquaintances are often judged by their handshake. Research has now recognized the simple squeeze as an important diagnostic tool in assessing strength and quality of life among critical care patients. In a study published in the journal, Support Care Cancer, Concordia professor Robert Kilgour and his colleagues at the McGill Nutrition and Performance Laboratory confirmed a link between handgrip strength and survival rates. The test was simple: 203 patients fighting advanced-stage cancers squeezed a device known as a dynamometer with ...

Ambitious new pollution targets needed to protect Lake Erie from massive 'dead zone'

2014-02-26

ANN ARBOR—Reducing the size of the Lake Erie "dead zone" to acceptable levels will require cutting nutrient pollution nearly in half in coming decades, at a time when climate change is expected to make such reductions more difficult. That's one of the main conclusions of a comprehensive new study that documents recent trends in Lake Erie's health. It offers science-based guidance to policymakers seeking to reduce the size of toxic algae blooms and oxygen-starved regions called hypoxic zones, or dead zones—two related water-quality problems that have seen a resurgence ...

UNC researchers team up to find new target for dengue virus vaccine

2014-02-26

CHAPEL HILL, NC – Creating a vaccine that protects people from all four types of dengue virus has frustrated scientists for decades. But researchers at the University of North Carolina have discovered a new target for human antibodies that could hold the key to a vaccine for the world's most widespread mosquito-borne disease. Using an experimental technique new to the dengue field, the labs of Ralph Baric, PhD, and Aravinda de Silva, PhD, showed that a molecular hinge where two regions of a protein connect is where natural human antibodies attach to dengue 3 to disable ...

Mayo Clinic discovers African-Americans respond better to rubella vaccine

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: