stuff

[Guest guest]

To All,

I too am positive that medical science will figure this out soon, sooner

than most of us think. I believe the key is a positive attitude. I saw an

internist here in Vegas as my LDMD is going to start IV abx today and he

wants a doc to follow me in Vegas. He also prescribed Paxil as he thought I

was depressed. It was kind of like he thought I should be on the

antidepressant because I had an unreasonable optimistic attitude about

getting normal. I just know I will get my complete life back, and soon!

Here's some more info that demonstrates that we are very close.

Promising Results on a Universal Vaccine Immune Stimulant

January 27, 2000

Journal of Immunology/MedscapeWire

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Linear carbohydrate-peptide constructs based on the 13 amino acid nonnatural

pan DR epitope (PADRE) and carbohydrate B cell epitopes are potent

immunogens that elicit strong antibody responses specific to the target

antigen, according to data reported in the February issue of the Journal of

Immunology. These data provide further support that PADRE could prove

important in improving vaccines against a number of infectious diseases and

cancers.

Carbohydrate antigens are important vaccine targets for a number of

infectious diseases including bacteria that cause pneumonia and meningitis

as well as many cancers, including breast, colon, lung, prostate, and

melanoma. The primary objective of carbohydrate-based vaccines is to

stimulate the large quantities of IgG antibodies that are most effective in

the treatment or prevention of disease. The results of the study demonstrate

that combining PADRE with carbohydrate antigens results in the stimulation

of large quantities of IgG antibodies that specifically recognize the target

carbohydrate.

The PADRE technology consists of a family of small (13 amino acid),

synthetic proprietary molecules that are potent immunostimulants. When

combined with disease-specific antigens, PADRE induces important

" co-stimulatory " signals that potentiate the antigen-specific immune

response, driving it to produce long-lived, high affinity IgG antibodies.

Epimmune Inc, the company that manufactures PADRE, believes that the small

size of PADRE compared with proteins traditionally used to make vaccines

targeting carbohydrate antigens offers several advantages: (1) PADRE can be

easily synthesized and readily characterized when linked to the antigen,

whereas traditionally used proteins complicate manufacturing; (2) the

antibody responses generated are primarily antibodies specific to the

disease-specific antigen (not antibodies to PADRE), whereas traditionally

used proteins generate high antiprotein responses, which can render the

vaccine ineffective; and (3) PADRE could aid in the development of

" combination vaccines " where it can be difficult to combine effectively a

number of different, much larger protein-antigen conjugates. In addition,

since PADRE is not derived from an infectious organism, it has the potential

to cause fewer adverse effects. PADRE has been used in several

investigator-initiated human clinical studies and has been shown to be safe

and well tolerated.

The study examined 2 PADRE-carbohydrate constructs for their ability to

induce antibody responses directed against the carbohydrate antigens. Each

construct was composed of a single PADRE molecule attached to a single

carbohydrate molecule, resulting in a simple vaccine configuration. This

type of conjugate vaccine differs from the more complex carbohydrate

vaccines currently produced, which typically are composed of multiple

carbohydrate molecules attached to a single large protein carrier molecule.

The results showed that test mice immunized with the PADRE-carbohydrate

vaccine constructs produced high-titer, high-affinity IgG antibody

responses, which were comparable to the responses induced by carbohydrate

vaccine constructs that used a large, complex protein. The results also

showed that PADRE constructs induce responses in which a much higher

proportion of the antibody (up to 1500-fold) is specific for the

carbohydrate antigen compared with the conjugate containing the complex

protein, where much of the antibody response is specific for the protein and

not for the carbohydrate antigen.

Journal of Immunology 2000;164:1625-1633