Unlike traditional allergy vaccines that are given weekly for several months, new formulations would require only a few injections and would offer longer-lasting relief.

“What you would hope is that you would get fewer injections less often, less likelihood of an allergic reaction and the same or better improvement in your symptoms,” said Dr. William C. Howland III, an allergist and medical director of Lovelace Scientific Resources in Austin, Texas.

Howland has presented research at an American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology meeting showing that just four injections of an investigational ragweed vaccine, called Pollinex Quattro, were safe and effective.

Separately, a research team led by Dr. Peter Creticos, clinical director of the Johns Hopkins Asthma and Allergy Center in Baltimore, has led pilot testing of another ragweed vaccine, called Tolamba, developed by Berkeley, Calif.-based Dynavax Technologies Corp. Those results were published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine.

“Our study was able to demonstrate that after a concise six-week, six-injection regimen, we were able to shut off seasonal symptoms for at least the two seasons we followed the patients in the study,” Creticos said.

Ragweed is a type of weed that grows throughout the United States but is most common in the eastern states and in the Midwest. Among Americans who are allergic to pollen-producing plants, 75 percent are allergic to this particular weed, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.

Ragweed season typically runs from mid-August to October and is a significant cause of fall allergy symptoms, says the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology.

Antihistamines help some people achieve relief from their symptoms, including runny or stuffy noses, sneezing, and itchy eyes, nose and throat. But when these medications don’t work, allergy shots are the next line of treatment.

Allergy vaccines are highly effective but have certain drawbacks, allergists say, including the number of shots required to build up an immune response.

“It takes between six and 18 months of weekly injections to reach the maximum effect, so people are coming in every week, and they get an injection,” Howland explained.

In addition, it’s recommended that patients wait in their doctor’s office 30 minutes after each injection to be monitored for any adverse reactions that may occur.

The new wave of investigational vaccines have been tweaked to be more effective in fewer doses and to reduce the incidence of immediate side effects.

Early results look promising.

Howland and his colleagues, for example, studied different doses of a ragweed extract and their effect on antibodies in the bloodstream. People with allergies produce an antibody called immunoglobulin E, which sets off a cascade of chemicals to fend off a perceived allergen, such as ragweed. This chemical response triggers the allergic symptoms that people experience. Another antibody in blood, called immunoglobulin G, fights infection.

“What the study showed was that the G antibodies increased proportionate to the strength of the injections given,” he said. “So, the weaker injection had less of an effect, and then the medium had more, and the highest dose had the highest effect on the G antibodies.”

However, don’t expect new-and-improved vaccines to pop up in your doctor’s office this ragweed season. Vaccine makers have to clear several hurdles first.

Allergy Therapeutics PLC, the U.K.-based maker of the Pollinex Quattro vaccine, reported that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had placed a “hold” on its clinical studies while the agency reviewed a report of a rare adverse event. The company noted that a physician involved said the event was “possibly related” to the study drug. Last November, the company said it had met with the FDA, submitted information, and would continue to work with the agency to lift the hold.

Meanwhile, Creticos said a large, multi-center trial replicated findings of the Tolamba pilot study that his team led. Additional studies are continuing.

Dr. Thomas B. Casale, chief of the Division of Allergy and Immunology at Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha, Neb., expects it will take another couple of years for these vaccines to become available, assuming, he added, that the next wave of clinical trials show that these approaches are safe and effective.

Until there are better treatments, people with ragweed allergy can minimize their exposure by keeping windows in their cars and homes closed to prevent pollen from drifting in, according to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. And take a shower after spending time outdoors, because pollen can collect on your hair and skin.

Studies Ignite Hope for Long-Acting Allergy Vaccines on Yahoo! Health

Related posts

• Doctors warn of skin rash from cell phones (0)
• 7 Ways to Alleviate Your Allergy Symptoms (0)

The list of companies facing potential recalls grew Friday as reports of foods tainted with the industrial chemical melamine, which has been blamed in the deaths of four Chinese infants, spread to a widening range of products.

Food companies around the globe are rushing to assess their products and in some cases setting new strategies to prevent problems.

“We have to think about any processed food with milk or protein in it,” said James Rice, a food industry veteran who is now China country manager for Tyson Foods Inc., the world’s largest meat processor.

While his company is not affected, for others “that includes biscuits, cake mix, energy bars, anything that should have protein in it,” he said.

Many food companies already were taking special precautions before Chinese milk suppliers were found to be adding melamine to watered-down milk to boost its apparent protein content. The chemical, which is high in nitrogen, can fool tests aimed at verifying protein levels. The compromised dairy products are blamed for sickening 54,000 children.

Some companies learned the need for extra diligence in China the hard way, during a spate of scandals last year from unsafe foods and toothpaste to melamine-laced ingredients in pet food.

But many continued to disregard the risks, said Jeremy Haft, a businessman who runs factories in China in a variety of industries, including medical products, clothing and building supplies.

“I don’t think much was learned from the recalls of a year ago,” said Haft, who has written of his experiences in a book, “All the Tea in China.”

Tokyo-headquartered Lotte Group, a major snack maker, got caught up in the storm Friday after its popular chocolate-filled Koala cookies were recalled in Hong Kong and Macau because of melamine contamination.

Packages of the cookies, still on sale in Shanghai, list whole milk powder as an ingredient.

“We will look deeply into all the details of the manufacturing process,” said Kayh Kim, manager of Lotte China Food’s planning department in Beijing. “We really don’t want to lose our customers’ confidence.”

In Tokyo, a company spokeswoman said Lotte products sold in Japan are not made with Chinese dairy ingredients.

Meanwhile, the Shanghai-based maker of White Rabbit, a popular vanilla-flavored toffee, said it stopped domestic sales after the Hong Kong government’s Center for Food Safety said the candy contained more than six times the legal limit of melamine.

That followed White Rabbit recalls in Britain, Singapore, New Zealand and Australia.

When rumors of melamine-related recalls of Oreos and other sweets spread by phone text messages and on the Internet earlier this week, Kraft Foods Inc. hastened to reassure customers that none of its Oreo-brand products contain milk powder from China.

Oreo fillings contain no milk, while Oreo cookies with icing on them use milk powder from Australia, it said. “Regardless of where they are produced, Kraft products are always held to the highest quality and safety standards,” the company said.

As they expand operations in China, targeting its potential market of 1.3 billion people, many foreign-brand food companies still rely heavily on local partners for quality control, experts say.

New Zealand’s dairy cooperative Fonterra discovered the implications when its local partner, Sanlu Group Co., failed to take quick action after Chinese doctors reported that babies drinking its infant formula were developing kidney stones.

“The problem was that Fonterra, right from the start, had no control over what was going on,” said Bruce McLaughlin, CEO of Sinogie Consulting in Shanghai, which conducts market research and investigations.

“The most important thing is that if you’re going to make an investment and have your name tied up with it, you have to have control over what’s going on,” McLaughlin said.

For some, that may mean going it alone.

Chocolate maker Barry Callebaut, the world’s leading producer of cocoa, chocolate and confectionary products, set up its own factory west of Shanghai earlier this year. The quality control staff report directly to the Swiss company’s CEO.

The factory is testing milk products from all local suppliers, setting aside any from domestic sources until it is confirmed safe, said Gaby Tschofen, the company’s vice president for corporate communications.

A decision by Japanese beer maker Asahi Breweries Ltd. to set up its own dairy farm in China is proving fortuitous: the company’s milk, which went on sale only this month, is selling fast amid the melamine scare.

Asahi Green Source Farm, a venture with fellow Japanese companies Itochu Corp. and Sumitomo Corp., is stocked with more than 1,000 dairy cows from Australia and New Zealand, said Chen Na, a marketing department staffer.

“We already realized the importance of the source of raw milk, since it’s easy for trouble to crop up in a booming market, and we have made every effort to control the manufacturing process for liquid milk production,” she said. “Better safe than sorry.”

Tainted milk crisis hits more global companies on Yahoo! Health

Related posts

• Milk scandal: 10,000 Chinese kids still ill (0)
• Lion Cub and Baby Orangutans Sickened by Tainted Chinese Milk (0)
• Nearly 53,000 Chinese children sick from milk (0)
• Chinese leader vows better food safety, ethics (0)
• China Recalls Tainted Infant Formula (0)

Researchers in Italy and the U.K. tested five major marijuana chemicals called cannabinoids on different strains of MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). All five showed germ-killing activity against the MRSA strains in lab tests. Some synthetic cannabinoids also showed germ-killing capability. The scientists note the cannabinoids kill bacteria in a different way than traditional antibiotics, meaning they might be able to bypass bacterial resistance.

At least two of the cannabinoids don’t have mood-altering effects, so there could be a way to use these substances without creating the high of marijuana.

MRSA, like other staph infections, can be spread through casual physical contact or through contaminated objects. It is commonly spread from the hands of someone who has it. This could be in a health care setting, though there have also been high-profile cases of community-acquired MRSA.

It is becoming more common for healthy people to get MRSA, which is often spread between people who have close contact with one another, such as members of a sports team. Symptoms often include skin infections, such as boils. MRSA can become serious, particularly for people who are weak or ill.

In the study, published in the Journal of Natural Products, researchers call for further study of the antibacterial uses of marijuana. There are “currently considerable challenges with the treatment of infections caused by strains of clinically relevant bacteria that show multi-drug resistance,” the researchers write. New antibacterials are urgently needed, but only one new class of antibacterial has been introduced in the last 30 years. “Plants are still a substantially untapped source of antimicrobial agents,” the researchers conclude.

Related posts

• You May Want to Rethink the Use of Medical Marijuana (0)
• What is inflammatory breast cancer and is it worse than regular breast cancer? (0)
• U.S. Broadens List of Peanut Products to Avoid Eating (0)
• Medical Marijuana – Myth or Reality? (0)
• Indonesia’s vast Papua in the grip of Asia’s worst AIDS crisis (0)