Dear Reader,
In this issue of Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics, a Profile of DanDrit Biotech, a clinical-stage company involved in the development of cancer vaccines (p 1303), and a Portrait of Dr. Timo Vesikari, whose lifelong interests have been in developing vaccines against rubella, varicella and rotavirus (p 1304).
The HPV section introduces a Phase 3 study of a novel vaccine to evaluate lot consistency (Luxembourg, p 1308), a Phase 2 trial of several novel candidates and their comparison to a licensed quadrivalent vaccine (Luxembourg, p 1315), evaluation of safety and immunogenicity of a quadrivalent vaccines in healthy females from sub-Saharan Africa (Mugo, p 1324) and a report indicating that educational intervention can increase providers' vaccine knowledge (Berenson, p 1332).
We present four Influenza-related articles: a meta-analysis of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic and protection gained by seasonal influenza vaccination (Li, p 1338), a study of vaccine uptake among nurses in Hong Kong (To, p 1346), progress towards standardized testing of H7N9 vaccine potency (Li, p 1352), and a commentary on the shift from virus- to protein-based vaccines (Buckland, p 1358).
The Immunotherapy section contains a preclinical study of a recombinant abrin toxin vaccine (Wang, p 1362), a review on peptide-based immunotherapeutics in solid tumors (Kaumaya, p 1369), and a research article on the effect of ginkgo seed polysaccharides on bone marrow-derived dendritic cell maturation (Shan, p 1388).
We introduce six articles on Licensed Vaccines: a study of association between CMV seropositivity and herpes zoster (Ogunjimi, p 1395), investigation of MMR in Israeli adults after 20 years of universal vaccination (Levine, p 1401), reports on the association between mumps incidence and weather in Taiwan (Chen, p 1407) and on a large mumps outbreak in Israel (Stein Zamir, p 1414), a comparison of three Japanese encephalitis vaccines (Wang, p 1419), and a commentary on the benefits of routine varicella vaccination of adults (Germinario, p 1427).
The Novel Vaccines section features mathematical modeling of EV71 immunity changes with age (Tu, p 1430), a review of combination vaccines against diarrheal diseases (Venkatesan, p 1435), a study of adjuvant-to-vaccine ratio in H4 TB vaccination (Aboutorabian, p 1450), a preclinical study of polyprotein-based TB vaccine (Teng, p 1457), a review on malaria invasion ligand RH5 as a vaccine candidate (Ord, p 1466), characterization of Necator americanus Aspartic Protease-1 as a component of a hookworm vaccine (Seid, p 1475), and a report on how different routes of administration influence Tat immunogenicity (Finessi, p 1490).
We present a review of alternative methods for evaluation of novel Pneumococcal vaccines (Esposito, p 1495) and three articles in Meningococcus section:a review on the sufficiency of a single dose in infant priming (Findlow, p 1502), a report on immunogenicity and safety of investigational vaccine formulations in healthy adolescents (Saez Llorens, p 1508), and characterization of OMV vaccine by label-free quantitative mass spectrometry (Dick, p 1519).
We conclude this issue with an analysis of coverage of WHO's Expanded Programme on Immunization in Vietnam (Dang, p 1527), a review on immunization strategy for hepatitis B vaccine (Liao, p 1535), a report that HIV patients' immune systems recognize conserved epitopes on HIV, SIV and FIV proteins (Roff, p 1541), and an introduction of Bayesian methods to analyze vaccine seroresponse rates and adverse events (Liu, p 1558).
Our monthly News, Policy and Profiles (NP&P) track offers a selection of the latest news in the field of vaccines and immunotherapeutics. In this section we also regularly publish opinion pieces on timely, interesting and controversial topics related to vaccines and immunotherapeutics, profiles of companies and organizations, as well as portraits of distinguished scientists in our field. Please contact Acquisitions Editor Adam Weiss ([email protected]) with your ideas for commentaries, opinion pieces, profiles and portraits. Your suggestions for and contributions to our N&P&P track are always welcome!
Sincerely,