SEATTLE, July 27, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI), International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) and Imdaptive Inc. announce new research that for the first time shows how to define how vaccine components expand immune responses. The results of these studies are published in Science Translational Medicine today.
The research was performed by scientists at IDRI in collaboration with researchers at ICGEB, New Delhi, and Imdaptive, Inc., Seattle. They demonstrated that increased variable chain sequences are observed in animals treated with a recombinant malaria vaccine formulated with immune response enhancers, TLR-agonists, versus animals receiving control vaccines. This diversity, or "antibody repertoire," may have the most significant impact on the vaccine's efficacy against a target pathogen as well as related variants.
Dr. Chetan Chitnis, Principal Investigator, ICGEB, comments, "TLR-agonists developed by IDRI may help malaria vaccines overcome the problem of diversity of malaria parasite strains."
Furthermore, the implications of these findings may impact vaccine formulations for diseases in addition to malaria, such as influenza and HIV.
Dr. Darrick Carter, Vice President of Adjuvant Technology at IDRI and one of the study's Principal Investigators, explains, "By measuring the entire antibody variable repertoire, we are able to show that antibody diversity is a function of the adjuvants used to initiate and enhance the immune response. This knowledge has the potential to make a significant impact on the future of vaccine design."
Dr Steven Wiley, founder of Imdaptive Inc., adds, "This paper demonstrates the usefulness of state of the art sequencing technologies and bioinformatic analysis in order to better understand the immune response at the molecular level".
About IDRI's Adjuvants
Adjuvants are compounds used to improve the body's immune response to vaccines. Adjuvant technology is proving invaluable in the development of vaccines for serious diseases for which vaccines are not currently available, including malaria and HIV.
Adjuvants are a key research component of IDRI's malaria, tuberculosis, leishmaniasis and leprosy vaccine development programssupported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the American Leprosy Missions.
About IDRI Translating science into global health solutions
IDRI is a Seattle-based not-for-profit organization committed to applying innovative science to the research and development of products to prevent, detect, and treat infectious diseases of poverty. By integrating capabilitiesincluding preclinical vaccinology, manufacturing, and clinical trialsIDRI strives to create an efficient pathway bringing scientific innovation from the lab to the people who need it most.
For more information, go to www.idri.org.
Contact: Stewart Parker, 206-518-6281 media@idri.org
About ICGEB Biotechnology research for the developing world
ICGEB is an international organization dedicated to advanced research and training in molecular biology and biotechnology, with special regard to the needs of the developing world. ICGEB, New Delhi is focused on addressing problems in health and agriculture. Health related projects are pursued in hepatitis B and E virus, HIV, tuberculosis, dengue and malaria. Plant biology projects address biopesticides, abiotic and biotic plant stress and crop improvement through biotransformation.
For more information, go to http://www.icgeb.org.
About Imdaptive
Imdaptive is a start-up biotechnology company with facilities located in the greater Seattle area. Imdaptive is focused on developing new sequence based methods for profiling changes in the adaptive immune system and discovery of monoclonal antibodies. These new techniques have implications in disease profiling, creation of therapeutic entities, and personalized medicine.
For more information, go to http://imdaptive.com.
SOURCE Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI)
