Laura P

http://www.bestofbiotech.wordpress.com

4 Comments

    • Dendreon's News - Good Spin, No Spunk [view article]
      Ames is right. I'm a biophysicist from Brown University

      biotechforkicks.wordpr.../       Jun 25 07:03 PM
    • World's First Cancer Vaccine Approved; Expect Interest in Antigenics, Dendreon [view article]
      B.S. These "vaccines" sound a lot sexier than they actually are. Dendreon and Antigenics are on the wrong path. Mark my words, in 5 years if they don't come up with something better they'll fall flat on their faces.

      This is not to say that tumor immunotherapy does not have amazing potential.

      I refer you to my post on Dendreon: biotechforkicks.wordpr.../

       Jun 25 07:00 PM
    • Elan, Wyeth Take an Inside-Out Approach to Alzheimer's Vaccine [view article]
      * "Any sort of vaccine could induce that vaccination-- ACN-1792 was stopped in its tracks in pIIa because of that very inflammation problem."

      Replace "vaccination"... with "inflammation.&qu... My bad.
       Jun 15 11:43 PM
    • Elan, Wyeth Take an Inside-Out Approach to Alzheimer's Vaccine [view article]
      My humble opinion: Immunotherapies in the brain are dangerous and can go wrong, wrong, wrong. That being said, passive immunization (antibody administration-- AB-001) is much better than active immunization (eliciting a response to an antigen-- AN-1792 and ACC-001).

      The brain, as I'm sure you know, is an "immuno-privilege... site-- that is, normally immune cells never enter the brain unless explicitly instructed to do so (e.g. with a vaccine). Leukocytes are not "trained" not to react to brain antigens they way they are with almost every other antigen in the body so the brain doesn't become the accidental target of damaging inflammation. Any sort of vaccine could induce that vaccination-- ACN-1792 was stopped in its tracks in pIIa because of that very inflammation problem.

      Elan is all excited because, even though their active vaccination didn't show much in the way of cognitive improvement, iautopsies of dead patients pII trials showed plaque regression. However, replacing one neurological disease with another isn't ideal and would probably only be OK'd for extreme cases. I am unimpressed.

      The passive vaccination (AB-001) is safer, and indeed it seems to work better (even though in my opinion it's still risky). Nonetheless, passive immunization is not nearly as sexy as an active immunization that could work prophylactically to cure Alzheimers like we cured Polio. The word "vaccine" has people all excited when perhaps they shouldn't be.

      Even passive immunization to beta-amyloid, though, vaguely misses the mark. It doesn't nip the problem in the bud. A secretase inhibitor-- something in Elan's pipeline-- would be able to nip the problem in the bud. However, it's years and years away...

      I'm intrigued and think that perhaps I will write up a full review of immunotherapies for Alzheimer disease... bestofbiotech.wordpres...       Jun 15 11:36 PM
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