MIC 419 Immunology
Admit Ticket 2
Vaccine Design and Testing

Reading Assignment

Vesikari, T., et al. 2006. Safety and efficacy of a pentavelent human-bovine (WC3) reassortment Rotavirus vaccine . The New England Journal of Medicine 354: 23-33 (January 5)

To access this paper

• Go to the Arizona Health Sciences Library (AHSL) at http://www.ahsl.arizona.edu/
• Click on Journals in the top menu bar
• Click on N in the Electronic Journals box (for New England Journal of Medicine)
• Scroll down to the journal name and click on the link (where there are two choices, choose the top one)
• Click on GO
• If you are off campus, enter your Cat Card number and click SUBMIT. If you are on campus, you will go directly to the journal.
• You can search the journal by putting ‘rotavirus’ or ‘Vesikari’ in the search box, OR you can click on ‘past issues’ in the top menu bar and follow the links to the January 5, 2006 issue.
• PDF will give you the complete article as it appears in the journal

Writing Assignment

1. Why was rotavirus chosen as the target for a vaccine? What characteristics make a pathogen a good target for a vaccine?

2. What type(s) of vaccine is this (killed, live attenuated, subunit, recombinant, DNA)? What makes it pentavalent? What are the advantages of this type of vaccine?  The disadvantages?

3. What is a double-blind study and why is it used? What is a placebo and why was it important that the placebo looked like the active vaccine?

4. What is the primary side effect the researchers looked for and why? What other side effects might occur?

5. In what two ways did the researchers measure the efficacy (success) of the vaccine? Why did they look for neutralizing antibodies? Why did they measure IgA instead of IgG?

Supplementary Materials:

clinical trials glossary: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct/info/glossary

intussusception (in-tuh-suh-sep-shun): http://kidshealth.org/parent/system/surgical/intussusception.html

Ruiz-Palacios, G. M., et al. 2006. Safety and efficacy of an attenuated vaccine against severe Rotavirus gastroenteritis. The New England Journal of Medicine 354:11-22 (January 5)

Vaccines