PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Enhanced flu protection: Four beats three

Adding a second strain of B flu lessens likelihood of mismatched vaccine

2015-03-13
(Press-News.org) ST. LOUIS -- A flu vaccine given just under the surface of the skin that includes four strains of inactivated influenza could be more protective than a similar flu vaccine containing only three strains, Saint Louis University research found.

These findings, which appear in Vaccine, confirmed the expected results, said Geoffrey Gorse, M.D., professor of internal medicine in the division of infectious diseases at Saint Louis University and the study's lead author.

Findings from this study of flu vaccines delivered by a small needle intradermally parallel earlier results that found adding a strain of influenza B could improve the effectiveness of a flu vaccine nasal spray and a traditional intramuscular vaccine that is injected as a shot in the arm muscle. All studies showed the addition of the B strain improved the antibody response to that strain and didn't weaken the body's immune response to other flu strains in the vaccine.

Flu vaccines can be trivalent - containing two strains of influenza A and one of influenza B - or quadrivalent - including two strains of A and two of B. Both are available to fight influenza.

Scientists create a flu vaccine annually based upon the strains of influenza they predict will circulate for the next season. Despite rigorous modeling practices, the virus in the vaccine occasionally doesn't match the circulating strain of influenza.

There are two lineages of B flu strains, and 50 percent of the time in the past decade, the trivalent vaccine B strain did not match the circulating B strain. The quadrivalent vaccine has both B strains in it.

"We found adding a fourth strain to the vaccine increases the chance the vaccine will match the circulating flu B strains," Gorse said. "At the same time, the addition didn't compromise the vaccine's ability to protect against the other three strains and was just as safe. Over time, the four-strain vaccine may be an important strategy to provide improved protection against influenza."

During the study, 3,355 volunteers who were between 18 and 64 years of age were vaccinated at 38 sites in the United States. They were randomized to receive one of three vaccines: the quadrivalent flu vaccine that contained two A flu strains and both lineages of the B strains; the licensed trivalent intradermal vaccine for the 2012-2013 flu season; or an alternate trivalent intradermal vaccine that contained two A strains and the B strain that was not in the licensed seasonal flu vaccine.

Volunteers who received the quadrivalent vaccine had superior antibody responses to the B strains and equally robust responses to A strains compared to volunteers who received the trivalent vaccines that did not contain the corresponding B strains.

Further, adding another B strain didn't compromise the vaccine's ability to cause the body to mount an immune response to the other flu strains. The responses of those given the quadrivalent vaccine were the same as those of volunteers who received the vaccine with two strains of A and the strain of B that matched the B strain in the 2012-2013 seasonal flu trivalent vaccine.

INFORMATION:

The research was supported by Sanofi Pasteur, the maker of the intradermal vaccines.

The article appeared in the print edition of Vaccine, Volume 33, Issue 9, (2015) pages 1151-1159 published by Elsevier dated 25 February 2015. The citation is "Safety and immunogenicity of a quadrivalent intradermal influenza vaccine in adults," by Geoffrey Gorse, M.D., Ann R. Falsey, M.D., Ayca Ozol-Godfrey, Victoria Landolfi and Peter H. Tsang, M.D., Ph.D. DOI 10.1016/j.vaccine.2015.01.025 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X15000444.

Established in 1836, Saint Louis University School of Medicine has the distinction of awarding the first medical degree west of the Mississippi River. The school educates physicians and biomedical scientists, conducts medical research, and provides health care on a local, national and international level. Research at the school seeks new cures and treatments in five key areas: infectious disease, liver disease, cancer, heart/lung disease, and aging and brain disorders.

Vaccine is the pre-eminent journal for those interested in vaccines and vaccination. It is the official journal of The Edward Jenner Society, The International Society for Vaccines and The Japanese Society for Vaccinology and is published by Elsevier. http://www.elsevier.com/locate/vaccine



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Expanding blood pressure screenings beyond primary care can improve hypertension detection

2015-03-13
PASADENA, Calif., March 13, 2015 -- Expanding blood pressure screenings to non-primary care settings can help identify more patients with high blood pressure, commonly called hypertension, and could contribute to better hypertension control and management, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published today in The Journal of Clinical Hypertension. Researchers examined the electronic health records of 1,076,000 Kaiser Permanente Southern California patients seen over a two-year period in primary care settings and non-primary care settings, including optometry, orthopedics, ...

The Lancet: International experts call for an end to preventable deaths from acute kidney injury by 2025

2015-03-13
Preventable deaths caused by acute kidney injury (AKI) could be nearly eliminated in just 10 years, according to leading medical experts. This often forgotten condition - which affects around 13 million people every year and contributes to 1.7 million deaths annually - is preventable and can be treated for as little as $US150 per patient. A major new Commission from The Lancet and the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) reports on an ISN initiative, launched in 2013, which calls for preventable deaths from AKI to be eliminated by 2025 (0by25). According to Professor ...

The Lancet: More than 2 million people die prematurely every year because treatment for kidney failure is unavailable

2015-03-13
New estimates published in The Lancet indicate that at best only half of people worldwide needing kidney dialysis or transplantation to treat kidney failure in 2010 received it. This suggests that at least 2.3 million people may have died prematurely from kidney failure because they could not access this life-saving treatment. The research shows that most of these preventable deaths occurred in China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Nigeria, where less than a quarter of eligible patients receive treatment for kidney failure. "The high cost of current dialysis techniques ...

Energy drinks raise resting blood pressure

2015-03-13
SAN DIEGO -- Healthy young adults who don't consume caffeine regularly experienced greater rise in resting blood pressure after consumption of a commercially available energy drink -- compared to a placebo drink -- thus raising the concern that energy drinks may increase the risk of cardiac events, Mayo Clinic researchers found. Results of the study will be presented Saturday, March 14, at the American College of Cardiology's 64th Annual Scientific Session in San Diego. In this study, researchers alternately gave a can of a commercially available energy drink or a placebo ...

Prolonged shortened sleep increases blood pressure at night

2015-03-13
SAN DIEGO -- People exposed to prolonged periods of shortened sleep have significant increases in blood pressure during nighttime hours, Mayo Clinic researchers report in a small study of eight participants. Results of the study will be presented Sunday, March 15, at the American College of Cardiology's 64th Annual Scientific Session in San Diego. In this study, eight healthy, normal weight participants, ages 19 to 36, participated in a 16-day inpatient protocol, consisting of a four-day acclimation period followed by nine days of either sleep restriction (four hours ...

Bariatric surgery appears to cut risks for serious asthma-related events

2015-03-13
A study led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators suggests that bariatric surgery can significantly reduce the risk of asthma attacks - also called exacerbations - in obese patients with asthma. Their report, published online in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, is the first to find that significant weight reduction can reduce serious asthma-associated events. "We found that, in obese patients with asthma, the risk of emergency department visits and hospitalizations for asthma exacerbations decreased by half in the two years after bariatric ...

Nearly 70 percent of evangelicals do not view religion, science as being in conflict

2015-03-13
Media and popular culture might portray religion and science as being at odds, but new research from Rice University suggests just the opposite. Findings from the recently completed study "Religious Understandings of Science (RUS)" reveal that despite many misconceptions regarding the intersection of science and religion, nearly 70 percent of evangelical Christians do not view the two as being in conflict with each other. The research was presented by Rice sociologist Elaine Howard Ecklund today in Washington, D.C., during the American Association for the Advancement ...

Common herpes medication reduces HIV-1 levels, independent of herpes infection

2015-03-13
Case Western Reserve researchers are part of an international team that has discovered that a common herpes drug reduces HIV-1 levels -- even when patients do not have herpes. Published online in Clinical Infectious Diseases, the finding rebuts earlier scientific assumptions that Valacyclovir (brand name, Valtrex) required the presence of the other infection to benefit patients with HIV-1. The result not only means that Valacyclovir can be used effectively with a broader range of HIV-1 patients, but also suggests promising new avenues for the development of HIV-fighting ...

New Mercury surface composition maps illuminate the planet's history

2015-03-13
Washington, D.C.-Two new papers from members of the MESSENGER Science Team provide global-scale maps of Mercury's surface chemistry that reveal previously unrecognized geochemical terranes -- large regions that have compositions distinct from their surroundings. The presence of these large terranes has important implications for the history of the planet. The MESSENGER mission was designed to answer several key scientific questions, including the nature of Mercury's geological history. Remote sensing of the surface's chemical composition has a strong bearing on this and ...

Solving the obstetrical dilemma

2015-03-13
Among the facts so widely assumed that they are rarely, if ever studied, is the notion that wider hips make women less efficient when they walk and run. For decades, this assumed relationship has been used to explain why women don't have wider hips, which would make childbirth easier and less dangerous. The argument, known as the "obstetrical dilemma," suggests that for millions of years female humans and their bipedal ancestors have faced an evolutionary trade-off in which selection for wider hips for childbirth has been countered by selection for narrower hips for ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Thirty-year mystery of dissonance in the “ringing” of black holes explained

Less intensive works best for agricultural soil

Arctic rivers project receives “national champion” designation from frontiers foundation

Computational biology paves the way for new ALS tests

Study offers new hope for babies born with opioid withdrawal syndrome

UT, Volkswagen Group of America celebrate research partnership

New Medicare program could dramatically improve affordability for cancer drugs – if patients enroll

Are ‘zombie’ skin cells harmful or helpful? The answer may be in their shapes

University of Cincinnati Cancer Center presents research at AACR 2025

Head and neck, breast, lung and survivorship studies headline Dana-Farber research at AACR Annual Meeting 2025

AACR: Researchers share promising results from MD Anderson clinical trials

New research explains why our waistlines expand in middle age

Advancements in muon detection: Taishan Antineutrino Observatory's innovative top veto tracker

Chips off the old block

Microvascular decompression combined with nerve combing for atypical trigeminal neuralgia

Cutting the complexity from digital carpentry

Lung immune cell type “quietly” controls inflammation in COVID-19

Fiscal impact of expanded Medicare coverage for GLP-1 receptor agonists to treat obesity

State and sociodemographic trends in US cigarette smoking with future projections

Young adults drive historic decline in smoking

NFCR congratulates Dr. Robert C. Bast, Jr. on receiving the AACR-Daniel D. Von Hoff Award for Outstanding Contributions to Education and Training in Cancer Research

Chimpanzee stem cells offer new insights into early embryonic development

This injected protein-like polymer helps tissues heal after a heart attack

FlexTech inaugural issue launches, pioneering interdisciplinary innovation in flexible technology

In Down syndrome mice, 40Hz light and sound improve cognition, neurogenesis, connectivity

Methyl eugenol: potential to inhibit oxidative stress, address related diseases, and its toxicological effects

A vascularized multilayer chip reveals shear stress-induced angiogenesis in diverse fluid conditions

AI helps unravel a cause of Alzheimer's disease and identify a therapeutic candidate

Coalition of Autism Scientists critiques US Department of Health and Human Services Autism Research Initiative

Structure dictates effectiveness, safety in nanomedicine

[Press-News.org] Enhanced flu protection: Four beats three
Adding a second strain of B flu lessens likelihood of mismatched vaccine