Australia pioneers new vaccination technique
Australia pioneers new vaccination technique
16:43, December 08, 2009 
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Human trials are soon to begin on an Australian-pioneered technique that could revolutionize vaccination by replacing the syringe with the spoon, Australian Associated Press (AAP) reported on Tuesday.
Dr Barry Marshall, the Australian scientist who won a Nobel Prize for discovering the bacteria responsible for stomach ulcers, is working on a way to use those same bugs (Helicobacter pylori) to create edible vaccines.
The first challenge Marshall must get around is a basic principal of the human body - that the immune system does not normally react to food.
"Previously, people have looked at delivering vaccines on lactobacillus in yoghurts, for example, but most of these products just look food to the immune system and they are ignored," Marshall told AAP.
"The new idea is to use the helicobacter, which infects your stomach temporarily.
"In the few days that it is sitting there it could be producing the vaccine, liberating it in the wall of your stomach where it is sensed by the immune system," he said.
The trial, taking in 36 healthy Perth-based volunteers, will begin in January. It will aim to find out which of a range of different strains of the unique bacteria, now known to be widespread and mostly harmless, had the most benign effect on gut.
"Half the people of the world are infected with it and most of them have no symptoms ... so that gives us a bit of confidence about the safety," Marshall said.
The technique could also hold the key to developing effective vaccines for the world's major diseases which have so far resisted decades of scientific effort.
"Nobody has succeeded with malaria, TB, HIV or hepatitis C at the moment and by having helicobacter delivering a targeted vaccine over many months then we may be able to get there," Marshall said.
Source:Xinhua
Dr Barry Marshall, the Australian scientist who won a Nobel Prize for discovering the bacteria responsible for stomach ulcers, is working on a way to use those same bugs (Helicobacter pylori) to create edible vaccines.
The first challenge Marshall must get around is a basic principal of the human body - that the immune system does not normally react to food.
"Previously, people have looked at delivering vaccines on lactobacillus in yoghurts, for example, but most of these products just look food to the immune system and they are ignored," Marshall told AAP.
"The new idea is to use the helicobacter, which infects your stomach temporarily.
"In the few days that it is sitting there it could be producing the vaccine, liberating it in the wall of your stomach where it is sensed by the immune system," he said.
The trial, taking in 36 healthy Perth-based volunteers, will begin in January. It will aim to find out which of a range of different strains of the unique bacteria, now known to be widespread and mostly harmless, had the most benign effect on gut.
"Half the people of the world are infected with it and most of them have no symptoms ... so that gives us a bit of confidence about the safety," Marshall said.
The technique could also hold the key to developing effective vaccines for the world's major diseases which have so far resisted decades of scientific effort.
"Nobody has succeeded with malaria, TB, HIV or hepatitis C at the moment and by having helicobacter delivering a targeted vaccine over many months then we may be able to get there," Marshall said.
Source:Xinhua
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