Researchers announce vaccines breakthrough
A Dendritic cell - Source: PLoS Pathogens
Researchers from the Institute for Animal Health (IAH) and the University of Oxford's prestigious Jenner Institute have announced a breakthrough in understanding why some vaccinations are less effective at stimulating the desired immune response than others. The research, which was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and undertaken by Dr Bryan Charleston, Dr Efrain Guzman and Dr Jayne Hope, is published in the journal Vaccine.
“We knew that sometimes even when we know a bacteria or virus well, it has been a struggle to make effective vaccines against certain diseases.” said Dr Charleston, before explaining that “We discovered that dendritic cells – a type of immune cell – are activated better by some vaccines than others. There are a lot of human and animal diseases that we would like better vaccines for, but until now we haven’t been able to find a good reason why, for example, the BCG vaccine against tuberculosis isn’t always effective, but the bovine herpes virus vaccine is extremely efficient at establishing long-term immunity.”
The researchers found that the BCG vaccine is only taken up by a small number of dendritic cells, thus explaining the variations in efficacy. They also investigated the possibility of improving the efficiency of responses to vaccinations by deliberately targeting dendritic cells, and got a positive response to this line of enquiry. It is hoped that the team's discovery will allow for the development of new vaccines caused by viruses as well as bacteria. The next stage of the research is to develop the technique of improving dendritic cellular response into a safe and reliable technique for use in the vaccination of both humans and animals.
Veterinary practices are being urged to help owners safely dispose of any unused and expired pet medicines - not just antibiotics - during November's Animal Medicines Amnesty. 
