Expert review of vaccines
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Expert review of vaccines · Feb 2012
ReviewTargeting EGF receptor variant III: tumor-specific peptide vaccination for malignant gliomas.
Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common and deadly of the human brain cancers. The EGF receptor is often amplified in GBM and provides a potential therapeutic target. However, targeting the normal receptor is complicated by its nearly ubiquitous and high level of expression in certain tissues. ⋯ A peptide vaccine, rindopepimut (CDX-110, Celldex Therapeutics), is directed against the novel exon 1-8 junction produced by the EGFRvIII deletion, and it has shown high efficacy in preclinical models. Recent Phase II clinical trials in patients with newly diagnosed GBM have shown EGFRvIII-specific immune responses and significantly increased time to progression and overall survival in those receiving vaccine therapy, as compared with published results for standard of care. Rindopepimut therefore represents a very promising therapy for patients with GBM.
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Rotarix(®) was first licensed in 2004 and rapidly introduced into private and public markets worldwide. In a previous 2009 article, we reviewed the impact of rotavirus-associated disease, the rationale for different vaccines, prelicensure efficacy studies and cost-effectiveness studies for Rotarix. ⋯ The current review intends to provide the reader with further insight into this vaccine, focusing mainly on the new information obtained after a 6-year postlicensure period. This review will provide only a brief summary of prelicensure studies extensively discussed in the previous publication and refer, in more depth, to the worldwide experience with the vaccine, vaccine impact, and safety observed in effectiveness and observational studies, including a particular analysis on protection against rotavirus G2P[4].
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Expert review of vaccines · Nov 2011
ReviewAdenovirus-vectored drug-vaccine duo as a potential driver for conferring mass protection against infectious diseases.
The disease-fighting power of vaccines has been a public health bonanza credited with the worldwide reduction of mortality and morbidity. The goal to further amplify its power by boosting vaccine coverage requires the development of a new generation of rapid-response vaccines that can be mass produced at low costs and mass administered by nonmedical personnel. The new vaccines also have to be endowed with a higher safety margin than that of conventional vaccines. ⋯ Moreover, pre-existing adenovirus immunity does not interfere appreciably with the potency of an adenovirus-vectored nasal vaccine. Nasal administration of adenovirus vectors encoding pathogen antigens is not only fear-free and painless, but also confers rapid and sustained protection against mucosal pathogens as a drug-vaccine duo since adenovirus particles alone without transgene expression can induce an anti-influenza state in the airway. In addition to human vaccination, animals can also be mass immunized by this class of vectored vaccines.