I joined host Dr. Marc Pelletier on the TWiT podcast ‘Futures in Biotech’ to interview influenza virologist Dr. Peter Palese, professor and chair of microbiology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. We talk about influenza and why Dr. Palese revived a virus that killed 50 million people. Download Futures in Biotech 40: Virus Reborn …
Last week on TWiV #26 Rich Condit and I were reminiscing about the possibility that we had received the virus SV40 along with our polio immunizations. That discussion prompted me to examine my immunization record for poliovaccine that my Mother had given to me in the early 1990s. She was cleaning out her house and …
Learning vaccinology from an immunization record Read More »
On episode #26 of the podcast “This Week in Virology”, Vincent, Alan, and Rich Condit converse about induction of polyomavirus replication in multiple sclerosis patients treated with the MS drug Tysabri, the extent of human polyomavirus infection, selection of influenza vaccines for the 2009-10 season, cowpox virus transmission from animals to humans, vaccinia-like virus infecting …
While immunosuppressive therapy can ameliorate a variety of diseases, one unfortunate side effect of the treatment is that it may lead to pathogenic infections by viruses which would otherwise be benign. An example is the brain infection PML which occurs when immunosuppression leads to replication of the polyomavirus JC. How many polyomaviruses do we have …
Biogen has announced that an anti-malaria compound may be useful for treating a brain infection, progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), that is an adverse effect of the company’s multiple sclerosis/Crohn’s disease drug Tysabri. How does JC virus fit into this story? Tysabri is the trade name for Natalizumab, a monoclonal antibody against the cellular protein alpha-4 integrin. …
Polyomavirus JC, multiple sclerosis, Tysabri, and an anti-malaria drug Read More »
The oral poliovirus vaccine strains (OPV) developed by Albert Sabin were licensed in the United States in 1962, and over the next 37 years immunization with these vaccines lead to the eradication of poliomyelitis in this country. During that period, the vaccine was responsible for 5-10 cases of poliomyelitis each year, either in recipients of …
