Wanted, an Anthrax vaccine: Dead or Alive?

It has been more than 100 years since the realization that microbes are capable of causing disease. In that time, we have learned a great deal as to how each organism has adapted to the immune system so as to avoid elimination. As well, we have also learned an immense amount since Louis Pasteur first proposed that the solution to infectious diseases was to culture the microbes and attenuate their virulence, so as to use them as vaccines. From the optimism and promise of the 19(th )century and immunization as the ultimate answer to the invasion by the microbial world, to the scientific realities of the 21(st )century, it is of interest to retrace the steps of the earliest microbiologists cum immunologists, to realize how far we've come, as well as how far we yet have to go. This editorial focuses on the history of anthrax as a microbial disease, and the earliest efforts at producing a vaccine for its prevention

The continuing HIV vaccine saga: naked emperors alongside fairy godmothers

The latest developments in the HIV vaccine field were aired at a Keystone Symposium recently. This Commentary summarizes some of the highlights from this meeting, and focuses on some of the developments that appeared particularly promising, as well as those that do not. Unfortunately, the "saga" continues

Optimal clinical trial designs for immune-based therapies in persistent viral infections

There is now effective therapy for infection by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), but there is no cure. Consequently, antiviral drugs must be administered continuously to suppress viral replication. Recently, a large phase III international immune-based therapy trial was discontinued because it is difficult to measure clinical endpoints while antivirals are administered. Since the immune system has evolved under the selective force of microbial infections, the immune reaction is antiviral. This commentary explores the rationale of using "Diagnostic Treatment Interruptions" of antiviral therapies to determine efficacies of immune-based therapies

The HIV vaccine saga

The development of a vaccine that can prevent infection by the Human immunodeficiency virus or prevent the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome has remained elusive despite 20 years of scientific effort. This "Commentary" analyzes the reasons that the development of a vaccine has been so difficult, and proposes a plan to work towards an immunological approach to investigate the best vaccine candidates in the first world in individuals who are already infected, before taking the most promising vaccines to the developing world to attempt to prevent infection and disease. SAGA: (Old Norse) "a long, continued heroic story that is action-packed, but not especially romantic, and that is historical or legendary or both"

Louis Pasteur, the Father of Immunology?

Louis Pasteur is traditionally considered as the progenitor of modern immunology because of his studies in the late nineteenth century that popularized the germ theory of disease, and that introduced the hope that all infectious diseases could be prevented by prophylactic vaccination, as well as also treated by therapeutic vaccination, if applied soon enough after infection. However, Pasteur was working at the dawn of the appreciation of the microbial world, at a time when the notion of such a thing as an immune system did not exist, certainly not as we know it today, more than 130 years later. Accordingly, why was Pasteur such a genius as to discern how the immune system functions to protect us against invasion by the microbial world when no one had even made the distinction between fungi, bacteria, or viruses, and no one had formulated any theories of immunity. A careful reading of Pasteur’s presentations to the Academy of Sciences reveals that Pasteur was entirely mistaken as to how immunity occurs, in that he reasoned, as a good microbiologist would, that appropriately attenuated microbes would deplete the host of vital trace nutrients absolutely required for their viability and growth, and not an active response on the part of the host. Even so, he focused attention on immunity, preparing the ground for others who followed. This review chronicles Pasteur’s remarkable metamorphosis from organic chemist to microbiologist to immunologist, and from basic science to medicine

Edward Jenner and the Small Pox Vaccine

Edward Jenner, who discovered that it is possible to vaccinate against Small Pox using material from Cow Pox, is rightly the man who started the science of immunology. However, over the passage of time many of the details surrounding his astounding discovery have been lost or forgotten. Also, the environment within which Jenner worked as a physician in the countryside, and the state of the art of medicine and society are difficult to appreciate today. It is important to recall that people were still being bled at the time, to relieve the presence of evil humors. Accordingly, this review details Jenner’s discovery and attempts to place it in historical context. Also, the vaccine that Jenner used, which decreased the prevalence of Small Pox worldwide in his own time, and later was used to eradicate Small Pox altogether, is discussed in light of recent data

The continuing HIV vaccine saga: is a paradigm shift necessary?

As pointed out in previous editorials, the development of an effective vaccine for the Human Immunodeficiency Virus capable of preventing infection, or even one capable of preventing the Acquired Immunodeficiency Disease Syndrome, has eluded investigators for the past 20 years. Now Reche and Keskin and their co-workers have provided evidence that an entirely new approach, based upon modern bioinformatics methods and skillful in vitro immunological experiments, may result in an effective way to prime the T cell immune response of normal individuals against conserved peptide epitopes