Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
OHSU Oregon National Primate Research Center develops new, safer method for making vaccines
http://www.sciencecodex.com/ohsu_oregon_national_primate_research_center_develops_new_safer_method_for_making_vaccines-92324"While vaccines are perhaps medicine's most important success story, there is always room for improvement. Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University's Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC) appear to have done just that. As explained in a newly published research paper, Mark Slifka, Ph.D., and colleagues have discovered a new method for creating vaccines that is thought to be safer and more effective than current approaches. The research results are published online in the journal Nature Medicine.
"Most vaccines have an outstanding safety record," explained Slifka. "It is important to keep in mind that no medical achievement has saved more lives than the simple act of vaccination. However, for many diseases, we have struggled to develop an effective vaccine. In other cases, vaccines may be protective, but come with rare but serious side effects. For instance, the live oral polio vaccine was very effective at stopping polio outbreaks and transmission, but was also responsible for eight to 10 cases of vaccine-associated polio in the United States each year. This problem was solved in 2000 when the U.S. switched to a formaldehyde-fixed 'dead' form of the vaccine. Our goal is to make vaccines like these safer and potentially even more effective by pioneering an entirely new approach to vaccine development."
Slifka's approach is remarkable because it is the first to demonstrate that hydrogen peroxide can inactivate viruses for use as vaccines. Although hydrogen peroxide has long been known as an effective antiseptic and is often used to sterilize medical equipment, it was believed that it would be too damaging to be useful in vaccine development. It turns out that this previous notion was incorrect. In fact, peroxide may turn out to be one of the best new approaches to future vaccine design.
In the study published this week, Slifka's lab generated not one, but three vaccines.
..."
FYI.
