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

Asthma: A vaccination that works using intramuscular injection

2012-04-05
(Press-News.org) Asthma is a chronic inflammatory and respiratory disease caused by an abnormal reactivity to allergens in the environment. Of the several avenues of exploration that are currently being developed, vaccination appears to be the most promising approach. In a publication soon to appear in the review Human Gene Therapy, the research scientists at Inserm and CNRS ( Institut du thorax, CNRS/Inserm/University of Nantes) reveal an innovatory vaccine against one of the allergens most frequently encountered in asthma patients. After vaccine was directly injected into the muscle of an asthmatic mouse, a nanovector significantly reduced both the hypersensitivity to the allergen and the associated inflammatory response.

Allergic asthma is a chronic respiratory disease that affects 300 million people throughout the world. The number of people suffering from asthma has doubled over the last ten years and almost 250, 000 people die prematurely from this problem each year. In most cases, asthma is caused by an abnormal reaction to substances in the environment known as allergens. From a physiological point of view, this hypersensitivity results in serious inflammation of the bronchial tubes and the bronchioles in sensitive persons. This alters their ability to breathe correctly.

Current treatment consists in administering corticoids that treat the symptoms and temporarily relieve the disorder, but without curing it. An alternative, long-lasting treatment for allergic asthma is based on a specific immunotherapeutic protocol commonly known as desensitization. Repeated, increased doses of the allergen are administered in order to decrease the hypersensitivity and reduce the symptoms in the event of subsequent exposure. However, the efficiency of this protocol is limited and varies greatly from one patient to another.

Then the research scientists came up with the idea of a vaccination technique using the DNA of the allergenic substance. Rather than administering repeated doses of allergen extract in order to reduce sensitivity, we worked on specific DNA sequences of the allergen responsible for the allergy. "Several studies demonstrated the therapeutic potential of this strategy, but we still had to find techniques that were reliable in human beings", explains Bruno Pitard, Director of the Biotherapy Innovations team at the Institut du thorax (CNRS/Inserm/University of Nantes). Using these techniques on human subjects meant that the treatment had to be efficient when only a small dose of DNA was injected.

The researchers first tried proving the efficiency of this DNA-based vaccination against the specific allergen Derf1, using a relevant animal model developed by the Bronchial and Allergic Pathologies team led by Antoine Magnan. In Europe, Dermatophagoides farinae 1 (Derf1) is a very common allergen carried by the dust mite Dermatophagoides farinae. More than half of patients presenting allergies to dust mites produce specific IgE type antibodies (Derf1) against this substance that are characteristic of asthma.

In practice, the researchers associated useful genetic sequences of the allergen Derf1 with a nanovector consisting of a synthetic polymer. This DNA sequence, transported by a sort of "molecular taxi" into the muscle cells that ensure protein synthesis of the allergen, modulated the allergic response in asthmatic animals .

The vaccine developed in a healthy mouse model was then optimized in a model composed of asthmatic mice. In the asthmatic mice, the vaccine triggers the production of specific anti Derf1 antibodies and a specific cellular response to Derf1, so that the immune system reacts with a protective non-allergizing response when the body comes into contact with the allergen. Two injections were administered at 3 weekly intervals. They significantly reduced the hypersensitivity of the airways and the levels of inflammatory cytokines, that were found in the lungs of asthmatic mice that had not been vaccinated.

These new results validate the whole potential for the use of this new nanovector in DNA vaccination. It is currently undergoing regulatory pre-clinical development with a view to future clinical trials in humans.

INFORMATION:

Sources

DNA/amphiphilic block copolymer nanospheres reduce asthmatic response in a mouse model of allergic asthma
Fanny Beilvert 1,2, Adrien Tissot 1,2,3, Marie Langelot 1,2,3, Mathieu Mével 1,2, Benoit Châtin 1,2, David Lair1,2, Antoine Magnan 1,2,3 and Bruno Pitard 1,2,4

1 INSERM, U915, Nantes, F-44000 France.
2 University of Nantes, IRT-UN, l'institut du thorax, Nantes, F-44000 France.
3 CHU Nantes, L'institut du thorax, Service de Pneumologie, Plate-Forme Transversale d'Allergologie, Nantes F-44000, France
4 INCELLART, 1 place Alexis Ricordeau, Nantes, F-44093 Cedex 1 France.

Human Gene Therapy, March 2012 http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/hum.2012.024

Research contact

Bruno PITARD,
Unité Inserm 1087« Institut du thorax »
Tel: 02 28 08 01 28
Email: bruno.pitard@univ-nantes.fr

Press Contact

presse@inserm.fr

END



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Thawing permafrost may have led to extreme global warming events

2012-04-05
Scientists analysing prehistoric global warming say thawing permafrost released massive amounts of carbon stored in frozen soil of Polar Regions exacerbating climate change through increasing global temperatures and ocean acidification. Although the amounts of carbon involved in the ancient soil-thaw scenarios was likely much greater than today, the implications of this ground-breaking study are that the long-term future of carbon deposits locked into frozen permafrost of Polar Regions are vulnerable to climate warming caused as humans emit the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide ...

Totara Learning Solutions Extends the Life of Moodle 1.9

2012-04-05
With over 67,000 registered sites, Moodle is the most popular Learning Management System globally. Moodle HQ is now fully focused on the Moodle 2.x series and ends support for Moodle 1.9 security fixes in June 2012. To ease the concerns of organisations that are not quite ready to upgrade to Moodle 2, Totara Learning Solutions is sponsoring support for serious security issues with Moodle 1.9 until December 2013. As with any software product, Moodle releases have a specific life cycle for support. From time to time legacy functionality will be discontinued or replaced ...

A new gene thought to be the cause in early-onset forms of Alzheimer's disease

2012-04-05
A new gene that causes early-onset of Alzheimer's disease has been discovered by the research team of Dominique Campion at the Insert unit 1079 "Genetics of cancer and neuropsychiatric diseases" in Rouen. The research scientists showed that in the families of 5 of 14 patients suffering from the disease, mutations were detected on the gene SORL1. This gene regulates the production of a peptide involved in Alzheimer's disease. The results of this study have been published in the review Molecular Psychiatry issued April 3rd. Precise genetic mutations have been seen to ...

Mobile technology helps explore nicotine addiction

2012-04-05
Some people quit smoking on the first try while others have to quit repeatedly. Using such mobile technology as hand-held computers and smartphones, a team of researchers from Penn State and the University of Pittsburgh is trying to find out why. "One thing that really stood out among the relapsers is how their urge to smoke just never dropped, in contrast to those who were successful in quitting for a month -- their urge dropped quickly and systematically -- almost immediately upon quitting," said Stephanie Lanza, scientific director of The Methodology Center at Penn ...

Novosoft Presents An Update To The Global Data Backup Protection Strategy Based On Verizon Findings

2012-04-05
Novosoft, the developer of award-winning backup software and enterprise resource planning systems, presented an official strategy for resolving data breach issues from the latest Verizon report which regard data backup. The strategy is based upon applying the best practices for different versions of Handy Backup, the backup software, depending of a company size and IT infrastructure. The backup software strategy whitepaper is available by request. "The annual report Verizon on global data breaches is a must-read for any company having more than zero computers. The ...

Thawing permafrost 50 million years ago led to global warming events

Thawing permafrost 50 million years ago led to global warming events
2012-04-05
AMHERST, Mass. – In a new study reported in Nature, climate scientist Rob DeConto of the University of Massachusetts Amherst and colleagues elsewhere propose a simple new mechanism to explain the source of carbon that fed a series of extreme warming events about 55 million years ago, the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), and a sequence of similar, smaller warming events afterward. "The standard hypothesis has been that the source of carbon was in the ocean, in the form of frozen methane gas in ocean-floor sediments," DeConto says. "We are instead ascribing the ...

HM Treasury confirmed to speak at Oil & Gas IQ's 10th Annual Acquisition & Divestiture Summit

2012-04-05
Oil & Gas IQ are delighted to confirm that Stuart Gregory, Senior Policy Advisor from HM Treasury, and Hugh Hedges, Head of North Sea Policy Team, HMRC will be making a presentation on the new UK decommissioning budgetary changes during the Decommissioning Liabilities Focus Day taking place Monday 23rd April 2012 as part of the 10th Annual Acquisition & Divestiture Summit. "We are very excited to have confirmed the HM Treasury for the Focus day as it offers delegates a unique chance to ask direct questions to the formulators of policy about what the new ...

Cone snail venom controls pain

2012-04-05
Hidden in the mud, the cone snail Conus purpurascens lies in wait for its victims. It attracts its prey, fish, with its proboscis, which can move like a worm, protruding from the mud. Once a fish approaches out of curiosity, the snail will rapidly shoot a harpoon at it, which consists of an evolutionarily modified tooth. The paralyzed victim then becomes an easy meal. It takes the venomous cone snail about two weeks to digest a fish. During this time, its venomous harpoon is also replaced. Prof. Dr. Diana Imhof from the Pharmaceutical Institute of the University of Bonn, ...

RingCentral Integrates With Cloud Services Box, Dropbox and Google Docs RingCentral CloudFax(SM) Becomes First Fully Integrated, Cloud-Based Fax Application

2012-04-05
RingCentral, Inc., a leading provider of cloud business phone systems, today launched RingCentral CloudFax(SM), the first ever cloud-based, fully integrated fax service offering the ability to send documents directly from Box, Dropbox and Google Docs. With just a few clicks, RingCentral CloudFax(SM) enables users to seamlessly fax any document stored in the cloud from a single web page - improving workflow and boosting productivity. "RingCentral allows us to send and receive faxes from anywhere, which enables us to respond to our clients quickly from wherever we're ...

How Usain Bolt can run faster -- effortlessly

2012-04-05
Usain Bolt can achieve faster running times with no extra effort on his part or improvement to his fitness, according to a study published today in Significance, the magazine of the Royal Statistical Society and the American Statistical Association. Cambridge Professor of Mathematical Sciences John D. Barrow illustrates how, based on concrete mathematical evidence, Bolt can cut his world record from 9.58 seconds to 9.45. Usain Bolt holds the current 100m world record, at 9.58s, and has been described as the best sprinter there has ever been, dramatically reducing his ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Printed skin to replace animal testing

Precision medicine could be possible in the fight against antibiotic resistance

Researchers at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University identify new targeted approach to protect neurons against degeneration

Western diet causes inflammation, traditional African food protects

Electrochemical method supports nitrogen circular economy

How researchers are shining a light on kidney disease

Some gut bacteria could make certain drugs less effective

PEPITEM sequence shows effects in psoriasis, comparable to steroid cream

Older teens who start vaping post-high school risk rapid progress to frequent use

Corpse flowers are threatened by spotty recordkeeping

Riding the AI wave toward rapid, precise ocean simulations

Are lifetimes of big appliances really shrinking?

Pink skies

Monkeys are world’s best yodellers - new research

Key differences between visual- and memory-led Alzheimer’s discovered

% weight loss targets in obesity management – is this the wrong objective?

An app can change how you see yourself at work

NYC speed cameras take six months to change driver behavior, effects vary by neighborhood, new study reveals

New research shows that propaganda is on the rise in China

Even the richest Americans face shorter lifespans than their European counterparts, study finds

Novel genes linked to rare childhood diarrhea

New computer model reveals how Bronze Age Scandinavians could have crossed the sea

Novel point-of-care technology delivers accurate HIV results in minutes

Researchers reveal key brain differences to explain why Ritalin helps improve focus in some more than others

Study finds nearly five-fold increase in hospitalizations for common cause of stroke

Study reveals how alcohol abuse damages cognition

Medicinal cannabis is linked to long-term benefits in health-related quality of life

Microplastics detected in cat placentas and fetuses during early pregnancy

Ancient amphibians as big as alligators died in mass mortality event in Triassic Wyoming

Scientists uncover the first clear evidence of air sacs in the fossilized bones of alvarezsaurian dinosaurs: the "hollow bones" which help modern day birds to fly

[Press-News.org] Asthma: A vaccination that works using intramuscular injection