CHICAGO, Mar 17, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- A new generation vaccine has big
benefits beyond eliminating the "ouch!" factor, say U.S. researchers working on
a vaccine delivered via a smoothie.
Mansour Mohamadzadeh of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
in Chicago have developed a new oral vaccine using probiotics, the healthy
bacteria found in dairy products such as yogurt and cheese.
Mohamadzadeh said he has successfully used the approach in a preclinical study
to create immunity to anthrax exposure. In addition, Mohamadzadeh is using the
method to develop vaccines for various infectious diseases.
Delivering the vaccine to the gut -- rather than injecting it into a muscle --
harnesses the full power of the body's primary immune force, which is located in
the small intestine, Mohamadzadeh said.
"This is potentially a great advance in the way we give vaccines to people,"
Mohamadzadeh said in a statement.
"You swallow the vaccine, and the bacteria colonize your intestine and start to
produce the vaccine in your gut, then it's quickly dispatched throughout your
body. If you can activate the immune system in your gut, you get a much more
powerful immune response than by injecting it. The pathogenic bacteria will be
eliminated faster."
The findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Science.
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Copyright 2009 by United Press International