How a modified poliovirus may help fight brain cancer - Medical News Today
How a modified poliovirus may help fight brain cancer - Medical News Today |
- How a modified poliovirus may help fight brain cancer - Medical News Today
- Poliomyelitis Therapeutics Market Growth 2020 | Statistics Revenue, Share, Competitive Landscape Size, Segments, Key Vendors, Emerging Technologies and Forecast to 2027 | - Medgadget
- REPORT: Nigeria’s polio survivors not out of the woods yet, but the system hardly cares - Internatinal Centre For Investigative Reporting
- U/E/R: Polio Vaccination Commences On February 19 - Modern Ghana
- A Small-Footprint, Integrated, and Automated Platform for Viral Production - Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News
| How a modified poliovirus may help fight brain cancer - Medical News Today Posted: 01 Feb 2020 12:00 AM PST Research in cell cultures and animal models suggests that scientists may be able to use a modified poliovirus to mount an immune response against brain tumor cells.  Scientists know that the poliovirus is the pathogen that causes poliomyelitis, a disease that affects the central nervous system, potentially causing disability and, in the most severe cases, death. But, increasingly, researchers have found that they can modify existing viruses to make them safe and, most importantly, harness their potential in challenging and fighting other health conditions. Recently, a team of investigators from the Duke Cancer Institute in Durham, NC, has discovered that they might be able to use the poliovirus in the treatment of a form of brain cancer. In their study paper — which appears in Nature Communications — the researchers explain that they have genetically modified the virus, creating a stable, safe version called a "chimera." This modified version, they say, can boost the immune response against diffuse midline glioma — a type of extremely aggressive brain tumor — that is more common in children than adults. The research so far has been preclinical, which scientists have conducted in vitro, in cancer cells they have collected from humans, and in vivo, in mouse models. For their study, the investigators modified a polio-rhinovirus chimera to get it to express a mutated tumor antigen that is usually present in diffuse midline glioma. Antigens are structures that stimulate an immune system response, and, in the current case, the mutated antigen stimulates the activity of dendritic cells. In turn, dendritic cells spur into action a group of specialized immune cells called "tumor antigen-specific T cells." Such T cells can lock in on tumors and start killing the cancer cells that form them, thus delaying tumor growth and prolonging survival. However, in previous experiments, these immune cells have also proved very difficult to control, as they mistakenly also attacked healthy tissue. This is where the modified poliovirus appears useful, according to the study authors. "Polioviruses have several advantages for generating antigen-specific CD8 T-cells as a potential cancer vaccine vector," explains senior author Dr. Matthias Gromeier. The virus, the researcher notes, is able to activate dendritic cells and stimulate an immune response against "the invader" — cancer — without threatening other aspects of health. "They have naturally evolved to have a relationship with the human immune system, activating dendritic cells, inducing CD8 T-cell immunity, and eliciting inflammation. As a result, they lack interference with innate or adaptive immunity," says Dr. Gromeier. Thus, the newly created version of the poliovirus could potentially act as a "vaccine" against aggressive brain tumors. So far, the experiments in cells and mouse models have shown enough promise to lead the researchers to plan a phase 1 clinical trial, involving human participants. "We are hopeful that this approach could be tested as a potential therapy for [diffuse midline glioma] tumors, which exact a terrible burden on children and their families." – Dr. Matthias Gromeier  |
| Posted: 14 Feb 2020 12:00 AM PST 
Poliomyelitis (polio) is viral infectious disease that mostly occurs in children of age group below 6 years. The poliovirus transmits through contact with an infected person primarily through the fecal or oral route and sometimes with contaminated water and food. It multiplies in the intestine and attacks on nervous system which leads to paralysis. There are three types of wild poliovirus (type 1, type 2, and type 3). The type 2 wild poliovirus was eliminated in 1999 and similarly, there were no cases found of wild poliovirus type 3 from 2012. Type 1 wild poliovirus is causing agent of poliomyelitis and it has not yet being eradicated completely. There is no treatment available to cure poliomyelitis, only preventive vaccine are available to avoid infection of this virus. Have a look on Demo Version: https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-pdf/3184 The growth of poliomyelitis therapeutics market is decreasing due to decreasing prevalence of poliomyelitis disease through increasing consumption of preventive vaccines. As per data of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the global number of polio cases has decreased from an estimated number of 350,000 in 1988 to 407 in 2013. The fall in global number of polio cases is more than 99%. As per same data source, the Americas, Europe, South East Asia, and the Western Pacific regions have been certified as polio free. Increasing government initiatives to overcome challenges of polio virus is expected to restrain growth of poliomyelitis therapeutic market. In 1988, the World Health Assembly (WHA) launched Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), which reduced the 99% of polio incidence globally. As result of this programme, 10 million people have been immunized and avoided to getting paralysed due to polio. This programme achieved great success from vaccine development to surveillance to collaboration with community to immunize vaccine to each child and make world polio free. The polio Endgame strategy 2019-2023 has planned to carry out some activities in 2019 to 2023.The key focus of this programme is to target endemic countries and provide them support to overcome this challenge. This programme will help to Pakistan and Afghanistan to execute their strategic planning of National Polio Eradication Initiatives. Browse Research Report At @ https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/ongoing-insight/poliomyelitis-therapeutics-market-3184 Poliomyelitis Therapeutics Market – Taxonomy The poliomyelitis therapeutics market is segmented on the basis of drug type, end-user, and region. By Drug Type
By Distribution Channel
By Region
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| Posted: 20 Feb 2020 05:57 AM PST  AS A CHILD growing up in Sango-Otta, Ogun State, Adeyemi Idowu loved to play soccer with friends. Like others in his age group, he also delighted in rolling tyres with a stick in his right hand as he scampered through the neighbourhood. But he soon had to bid farewell to that life of playful adventure as a result of poliomyelitis. Commonly known by its abbreviation, polio, the crippling and infectious disease causes muscles to weaken. In the majority of people with the poliovirus, there are either minor symptoms or no symptoms at all. But this was not the case for Idowu, who before his fourth birthday suffered paralysis — a rare case of polio infection. It started as a headache for which he used a pain relief medicine known as Phensic. He relaxed, went out in the evening to play with friends, and returned to his mom's grocery shop where he dozed off. After nightfall, she nudged him to wake up so they could go into the house. He tried standing up twice but fell back each time. The third time, his legs would not budge even slightly. Thinking he was just wobbly from sleep, she lifted and carried him to his room. By the next morning, Idowu had lost his ability to move anything but his eyes. After receiving treatment, he regained control of his upper body. His legs, which had grown significantly thinner, could not respond to treatment. "I woke up one morning and the entire story of my life just changed," he tries to summarise the experience. With tremendous difficulty and rare determination, Idowu has since gone on to graduate from primary school, secondary school, university, and the Nigerian Law School (NLS). He was called to the bar last November and is now with the National Youth Service Corps. But it is not all rosy for the young lawyer as life with polio can be an unending struggle — no thanks to a condition known as the Post-Polio Syndrome (PPS). Polio often affects children aged under five years and only causes irreversible paralysis in one out of 200 cases of infection. The World Health Organisation notes that, with only 33 reported incidents in 2018, "wild poliovirus cases have decreased by over 99 per cent since 1988", owing to immunisation efforts stepped up by various international NGOs. From contributing to over 50 per cent of all polio cases worldwide in 2012, Nigeria was declared last year to no longer be polio-endemic having gone over three years without incident. But one area not much attention has gone to is the medical and social needs of survivors of the disease many of whom are disabled and sometimes suffer from a secondary illness. Post-Polio Syndrome surfaces many years after the initial attack in the form of muscle weakness, severe fatigue, and pain in the limbs due to degenerating motor nerve cells. There are about 11 million polio survivors in Nigeria, according to an estimate by the Disability Rights Advocacy Group (DRAC), and as many as 85 per cent could have symptoms of PPS. The problem is many do not know, including the sufferers themselves. Post-Polio Syndrome. What's that?Post-Polio Syndrome affects different people in different ways. It might affect parts of the body originally infected by the poliovirus or disturb entirely new areas. Some polio survivors with PPS suddenly find it difficult climbing stairs, some have difficulty walking, and for others, the problem is unusual fatigue. Idowu started noticing severe weakness in his hands, especially the right one when he got admitted into the University of Ibadan. He thinks this might be as a result of the pressure of taking notes and writing ceaselessly for several hours during examinations. He had no idea what PPS was until he visited the university clinic in his second year following advice of one of his lecturers, Bukola Akinbola. "I started taking a few measures to correct it. I had to change some of the enhancements I was using," he recalls. "For instance, when I got to the UI, I was using wooden crutches and I had to change them to aluminium ones." "A fii suru ni matter yen [one just has to be patient]," he chuckles sadly, referring to the physiotherapy. The necessary treatment just wasn't affordable for the average person, let alone a student. Explaining why awareness is still poor and many people suffering from PPS do not know, Roseline Ezenagu, executive director of Eccentric Support Initiative, says efforts have not been made to throw light on the condition using indigenous languages. "People know about polio because the awareness is there already, but little or nothing is known about PPS," she stresses.  Asking Google for helpFar too many institutions in Nigeria, including schools, are still not disability-inclusive — despite there being at least 27 million Nigerians (13.5 per cent) with various forms of impairment. And this is part of what makes it difficult to address PPS. "Inclusion is even a challenge generally," Idowu observes. "So if you're even bringing up a subject as unpopular as Post Polio Syndrome, it is like you are saying something out of the ordinary." When he visited the clinic at the Nigerian Law School, Abuja, last year to get a medical report so he could be given more time to answer questions during the bar exams, Idowu was shocked to discover the Chief Medical Director had no idea what PPS meant and, in fact, had to Google it. He started by asking questions that betrayed his unawareness before briefly entering his office. "When he stepped out he was still holding the gadget," says Idowu. "From the bright screen, I could see the responses he got from Google and the particular page he clicked on." He adds that this could be because physiotherapy isn't the doctor's speciality. Last October, Abuja-based Cedarcrest Hospitals established a polio centre out of concern about "the near absence of medical care of polio survivors". The medical director, Felix Ogedegbe, pointed out that though non-governmental organisations and the government have worked tremendously to make Nigeria polio-free, attention is not being paid to the disease's late effects. "Polio survivors are suffering from treatable medical complications and preventable secondary deterioration, while the medical community in general, unaware of recent advances in polio care, tell them nothing can be done," he said. Lack of awareness among doctors is not the only problem though. There are also not enough specialists in the country to adequately cater to the needs of polio survivors. According to the World Confederation of Physical Therapy, Nigeria has less than one physiotherapist for every 10,000 person — one of the lowest worldwide. The Nigeria Society of Physiotherapists has also revealed that 50 per cent of registered physiotherapists in the country practise abroad, only 1000 are gainfully employed, and many teaching hospitals and federal medical centres have less than enough specialists. Umaru Muhammad Badaru, a physiotherapist and lecturer at Bayero University Kano, confirmed to The ICIR that though their number is growing, there are still not enough professionals. From discomfort to mockeryFor Idowu, getting the medical report in July did not bring an end to his troubles. The NLS management did not grant his request for extra time until August 20, by which time he had already written three out of six papers. He could not get an allotted extra 10 minutes in the MCQ examination, where he most needed it, and an extra 30 minutes in the Property Law and Criminal Litigation papers. The Director of Academics, Sam Osamolu, was in the hall on the first examination day, so he asked him if he had notified the chief invigilator about his request. Osamolu, he remembers, said there was nothing he could do. "And there was something about these guys' expression that showed they really didn't believe you and it was very frustrating," he adds with distaste. The letter granting extra time was eventually obtained after relentless lobbying from the school librarian and Idowu's group mentor. "It was just a lot of stress and unnecessary attention over something that could just be determined medically. I-I-," he stutters hurtfully, "I couldn't have forged a medical report." During one of the days he was granted extra time, he suffered humiliation at the hands of an invigilator who could not understand why he deserved special consideration. "Ki lo de ti won fun ni extra time, se oju e fo ni? [Why was he granted extra time when he isn't blind?]" she had asked in Yoruba while looking scornfully in his direction. "The point is they only pay attention to you when you have screamed and screamed and they just want to avoid getting embarrassed, or you are lucky like me to have somebody with a seat at the table who could push one or two things on your behalf," Idowu says. "The fact that knowledge [of Post-Polio Syndrome] is not popular, the fact that people don't know about these things, the fact that people who are affected by this condition do not even know, and the fact that for the few who know accessing medical care is challenging; it is a lot to bear."
Health insurance for polio survivorsAccording to the World Health Organisation, people with disability are, more often than not, among "the poorest of the poor". For this reason, a clinical physiotherapist based in Oyo state, who asked not to be named because he is a government employee, advocates that diseases affecting them should be included in the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). The ICIR observed that the scheme presently does not group physically challenged people among vulnerable groups for which it has designed programmes. "Definitely, PPS and other ailments affecting people with disability should be included in the NHIS. Treatments should be highly subsidised. That is the proper thing for government to do," the physiotherapist says. He recommends that professionals inculcate the habit of reaching out to polio survivors to assure them they can get help because many of them have developed a thick skin and seldom ask for assistance due to social conditioning. Hospitals, the health professional says, should also fast-track and centralise access to health care for persons with disability so as not to wear them out. It is his view that the National Council for Persons with Disability provided for under the Disability Rights Act passed in 2019 should be set up as soon as possible to advance the interests of vulnerable persons. "If we must solve the problems of people with disability, everybody must be answerable. We must eliminate all forms of abuse and treat people with disability with dignity," he concludes reflectively.
Related |
| U/E/R: Polio Vaccination Commences On February 19 - Modern Ghana Posted: 14 Feb 2020 12:00 AM PST 
The Upper East Regional Health Directorate has set Wednesday 19th to 25th February to vaccinate children between zero and four years against polio. The campaign dubbed: "IPV prevents all polio diseases; get your child vaccinated for good life" is in response to getting the cohort of children vaccinated against type 2 poliovirus after a switch to inactivated polio vaccine in 2016. Speaking to Citi News in Bolgatanga, Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Winfred Ofosu said 142 teams of health professionals will be deployed to vaccinate about 96,799 targeted children. "Children who were born between April 2016 when the switch took place and June 2018 when IPV was introduced had no protection against type 2 poliovirus. It is estimated that over two million children are not protected against type 2 virus in Ghana and therefore vulnerable to infection. To ensure that all these children are protected, there is the need to vaccinate this cohort of children with the Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV) in the country to ensure full protection from this debilitating disease," he said. Dr. Ofosu indicated that all eligible children will be given 0.5mls Inactivated Polio Vaccine by intramuscular injection on the right deltoid (shoulder). He added that health personnel will be at outreach points, schools, markets and other vantage points to provide the polio vaccination. "We wish to assure all caregivers and the general public that all our vaccines are safe and have over the years reduced vaccine-preventable diseases and deaths in the Upper East Region and the country as a whole." Dr. Ofosu encouraged the public to report any child under 15 years who develop sudden paralysis to the nearest health centre within 24 hours for diagnosis and treatment. He admonished the public to strictly adhere to personnel and environmental hygiene practices such as regular handwashing with soap, avoid open defecation and keep their environment tidy to avoid the spread of the poliovirus. "Let me encourage all caregivers and parents to actively participate in this IPV catch-up vaccination campaign to ensure that our children who are our future leaders are vaccinated to make them fully protected against poliomyelitis," he noted. Poliomyelitis or polio is a highly infectious viral disease which affects mainly young children and is transmitted from person-to-person through the faeco-oral route from contaminated water and food. The virus multiplies in the intestine, from where it invades the nervous system and cause paralysis and even death in some cases. The weakness most often involves the limbs but may rarely affect the muscles of the head, neck and diaphragm.
---citinewsroom  |
| Posted: 01 Feb 2020 12:00 AM PST As the global population increases, traditional vaccine manufacturing models are coming under increasing scrutiny. They are struggling to satisfy rising demand and quality expectations for vaccines that are critical to preventing life-changing, and even fatal, infectious diseases. In the case of poliomyelitis (polio), which can cause debilitating paralysis or death, and for which there is no effective treatment available, the best strategy to protecting global health is prevention through immunization. Because traditional vaccine manufacturing platforms require high capital investment and offer low reimbursement levels, there have been limited efforts toward vaccine innovation in the industry over the past decade or more. To bridge the gaps between the supply and demand for these life-saving vaccines and other biologics, Univercells has developed a novel manufacturing platform for flexible, reliable, and cost-effective production. The NevoLine™ system was first developed for the production of a trivalent inactivated polio vaccine, specifically, a Sabin strain–based inactivated polio vaccine (sIPV), with Vero cells at a final cost under $0.30/dose. This first application was performed under a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with consortium partners Batavia Biosciences and Natrix (Merck Millipore). The results of this study are illustrated in the case study that follows. The NevoLine manufacturing platform combines intensified, continuous, and automated single-use bioprocessing approaches. In-line monitoring and controls contribute to cost-effective vaccines manufacturing with drastic CAPEX and footprint reductions. Designed with self-contained modules tailored to the biosafety level and bioburden control requirements (such as biosafety cabinets and isolators) for each process, the NevoLine platform is highly flexible for a range of applications, and for the implementation of flexible-facility concepts for rapid response to market demands (Figure 1).  At the core of the NevoLine platform is the scale-XTM fixed-bed bioreactor, which is available in a wide range of configurations and provides up to 600 m² of area for cell growth within a 60-L bioreactor. The full platform supports the production of large quantities; in this case, over half a million doses per batch of sIPV. The NevoLine platform was designed to deliver high titers and high production yields while maintaining adequate product purity and quality. The economic benefits of the NevoLine platform for sIPV manufacturing are reviewed here. sIPV vaccine manufacturing with the NevoLine platform has three stages (Figure 2): upstream processing (preculture, inoculation, cell culture, infection, and viral production); downstream processing (clarification, purification, and formulation); and inactivation processing. The Highly Intensified Process for sIPV (HIP-IPVTM) was developed by consortium partner Batavia Biosciences.  Equipment and consumablesThe process was developed at small scale (scale-X hydro bioreactor, 2.4 m² growth surface) and is being scaled-up to pilot scale (scale-X carbo bioreactor, 10–30 m² growth surface). To demonstrate further scalability, large-scale bioreactors will be used (scale-X nitro, up to 600 m² growth surface). See Figure 3.  Biological materials: Vero cells and Sabin attenuated polio strains. Assays: optical microscope for cell density monitoring via nuclei counts; TCID50, ELISA assay (D-antigen content), SDS-PAGE, HCP ELISA, and HCDNA qPCR for production and purity testing. Cost modeling: BioSolve 2017 (from Biopharm Services) used for cost comparisons at commercial (600 m²) scale. Reference process: traditional sIPV manufacturing with stirred-tank microcarrier process used for comparison. Results for the sIPV production processCell growth in scale-X bioreactor: The growth profiles of the Vero cells in scale-X bioreactors at both small and pilot scales are shown in Figure 4. The use of intensified fixed-bed bioreactors with a high surface area per unit volume allowed for cell densities of up to 200,000 cells/cm² (or ~30 million cells/mL of fixed-bed) to be reached reproducibly within 5 days. A comparable growth profile was seen at a 2.4 m2, 10 m², and 30 m² scale.  Viral expression: The D-antigen concentrations of the three serotypes of sIPV obtained at small scale are shown in Figure 5. The high titers achieved in scale-X bioreactor demonstrate a promising production potential compared to titers achieved in current microcarrier-based processes (up to +203% for PV3, n = 4). High viral titers were maintained during process scale-up to the 30 m² pilot scale (not shown here).  Optimized downstream processing: A one-step sIPV purification process was developed using a one-step capture chromatography column, resulting in a high purity and recovery. Process recoveries after inactivation are 1.6 to 2.7 times higher than in the reference microcarrier process, while achieving over 95% purity (taking whole cells and residual DNA into account, WHO specifications) (Figure 6).  Small footprint: The NevoLine platform was customized into three modules for upstream, downstream, and inactivation processes for sIPV production (Figure 7). Intensification of each unit step helped to drastically reduce the footprint of the equipment, which was contained in a series of isolators for increased safety. The final footprint covered 10 m². A highly automated interface limits the number of manual operations, and in-line decontamination guarantees safety.  Case study conclusionsThe consortium led by Univercells successfully delivered a breakthrough low-cost manufacturing platform for polio vaccine. This case study demonstrates results under $0.30/dose for sIPV vaccine production, cutting the cost of production up to fivefold. Process and equipment scale-up to commercial capacity is the next challenge to make polio vaccines affordable and available to all. Based on the successful first application for polio vaccine covered in this case study, it is demonstrated that the NevoLine platform is a flexible, cost-effective solution for global health viral vaccines for human and veterinary use; epidemic preparedness (low-cost stockpiling) and response strategies for outbreaks; and high capacity, cost-effective viral vector production for cell and gene therapies. At Batavia Biosciences, Ahd Hamidi, PhD, is a bioprocess technologist working as head of Global Health Projects, and Christopher Yallop, PhD, serves as COO and CSO. At Univercells, Jean-Christophe Drugmand, PhD, is senior bioprocess architect, innovation and conceptual design, Andy Reniers is bioprocess engineer, Stephanie Dubois is program manager, and José Castillo (j.castillo@univercells.com) is company co-founder and CTO.  |
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