Current Issue : April-June Volume : 2022 Issue Number : 2 Articles : 5 Articles
By vaccinating SARS-CoV-2 naïve individuals who have already received two doses of COVID-19 vaccines, we aimed to investigate whether a heterologous prime-boost strategy, using vaccines of different platforms as the booster dose, can enhance the immune response against SARS-CoV-2 virus variants. Participants were assigned into four groups, each receiving different combination of vaccinations: two doses of BNT162b2 followed by one dose of BNT162b2 booster (B-B-B); Combination of BNT162b2 (first dose) and CoronaVac (second dose) followed by one dose of BNT162b2 booster (B-C-B); two doses of CoronaVac followed by one dose of CoronaVac booster (C-C-C); two doses of CoronaVac followed by one dose of BNT162b2 booster (C-C-B). The neutralizing antibody in sera against the virus was determined with live virus microneutralization assay (vMN). The B-B-B group and C-C-B group demonstrated significantly higher immunogenicity against SARSCoV- 2Wild type (WT), Beta variant (BV) and Delta variant (DV). In addition, the B-B-B group and C-C-B group showed reduced but existing protection against Omicron variant (OV). Moreover, A persistent rise in vMN titre against OV was observed 3 days after booster dose. Regarding safety, a heterologous prime-boost vaccine strategy is well tolerated. In this study, it was demonstrated that using vaccines of different platforms as booster dose can enhance protection against SARS-CoV-2 variants, offering potent neutralizing activity against wild-type virus (WT), Beta variant (BV), Delta variant (DV) and some protection against the Omicron variant (OV). In addition, a booster mRNA vaccine results in a more potent immune response than inactivated vaccine regardless of which platform was used for prime doses....
Introduction. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic progressive inflammatory disease that causes joint destruction. The condition imposes a significant economic burden on patients and societies. The present study is aimed at evaluating the cost-effectiveness of Infliximab, Adalimumab, and Etanercept in treating rheumatoid arthritis in Iran. Methods. This is a cost-effectiveness study of economic evaluation in which the Markov model was used. The study was carried out on 154 patients with rheumatoid arthritis in Fars province taking Infliximab, Adalimumab, and Etanercept. The patients were selected through sampling. In this study, the cost data were collected from a community perspective, and the outcomes were the mean reductions in DAS-28 and QALY. The cost data collection form and the EQ-5D questionnaire were also used to collect the required data. The results were presented in the form of an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio, and the sensitivity analysis was used to measure the robustness of the study results. The TreeAge Pro and Excel softwares were used to analyze the collected data. Results. The results showed that the mean costs and the QALY rates in the Infliximab, Adalimumab, and Etanercept arms were $ 79,518.33 and 12.34, $ 91,695.59 and 13.25, and $ 87,440.92 and 11.79, respectively. The one-way sensitivity analysis confirmed the robustness of the results. In addition, the results of the probabilistic sensitivity analysis (PSA) indicated that on the cost-effectiveness acceptability curve, Infliximab was in the acceptance area and below the threshold in 77% of simulations. The scatter plot was in the mentioned area in 81% and 91% of simulations compared with Adalimumab and Etanercept, respectively, implying lower costs and higher effectiveness than the other two alternatives. Therefore, the strategy was more cost-effective. Conclusion. According to the results of this study, Infliximab was more cost-effective than the other two medications. Therefore, it is recommended that physicians use this medication as the priority in treating rheumatoid arthritis. It is also suggested that health policymakers consider the present study results in preparing treatment guidelines for RA....
Background: Primary lack or secondary loss of response to therapy with infliximab is a significant problem. This study aimed to evaluate the response to treatment in patients with Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) achieving therapeutic and sub-therapeutic trough levels of biosimilar infliximab (CT-P13). Results: A total of 65 patients (32 with CD and 33 with UC) were recruited. The overall response rate in both CD and UC patients exceeded 80%. There were no significant differences in treatment response and CT-P13 levels for patients with CD or UC. We did not find significant differences in the percentage of patients achieving drug levels of 3 g/mL at week 6, 10, or 12; a significant decrease was observed at week 14. Up to 55.5% of patients with CD and 64.3% of patients with UC with sub-therapeutic CT-P13 levels at week 14 primarily responded to treatment. Conclusions: Intermediate measurements of drug levels at weeks 10 and 12 did not capture any pronounced decrease in infliximab concentrations below therapeutic levels in either group, thus suggesting no clinical usefulness. A significant percentage of patients primarily responded to treatment despite sub-therapeutic drug levels after the induction phase....
Recombinant vaccinia viruses (rVVs) are attenuated viruses and are widely utilized as vectored vaccine platforms against numerous diseases. However, the protective efficacy of these rVV vaccines against Toxoplasma gondii and the resulting mucosal immunity has not been thoroughly assessed. Here, rVVs expressing the rhoptry protein 4 (ROP4) of T. gondii were generated. To evaluate the protection induced by the vaccines, mice were orally immunized with the ROP4-rVVs and subsequently challenge-infected with a lethal dose of T. gondii ME49 strain. Immunization with the rVVs induced higher levels of parasite-specific IgG and IgA antibody responses in sera compared to unimmunized control (NC). Upon challenge infection, significantly higher levels of IgG or IgA antibody responses in the brain, intestines, and vaginal samples were found in the immunized mice compared to NC. The ROP4-rVV vaccination elicited potent IgG and IgA secreting cell (ASC) responses, while substantially enhancing germinal center B cell, as well as CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses from lymphoid organs. The production of pro-inflammatory cytokines IFN- and IL-6 in the brains was markedly diminished following immunization. The immunized mice also experienced reduced bodyweight loss and possessed fewer brain cysts than the control group. These results suggest that oral delivery of ROP4 displaying rVVs induced mucosal and systemic immunities that contributed to protection against lethal T. gondii challenge infection....
We recently developed a chimeric flavivirus vaccine technology based on the novel insectspecific Binjari virus (BinJV) and used this to generate a chimeric ZIKV vaccine (BinJ/ZIKA-prME) that protected IFNAR-/- dams and fetuses from infection. Herein, we show that a single vaccination of IFNAR-/- mice with unadjuvanted BinJ/ZIKA-prME generated neutralizing antibody responses that were retained for 14 months. At 15 months post vaccination, mice were also completely protected against detectable viremia and substantial body weight loss after challenge with ZIKVPRVABC59. BinJ/ZIKA-prME vaccination thus provided long-term protective immunity without the need for adjuvant or replication of the vaccine in the vaccine recipient, both attractive features for a ZIKV vaccine....
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