Universal vaccine against respiratory infections and allergens
96 points
3 hours ago
| 7 comments
| med.stanford.edu
| HN
algoth1
1 minute ago
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Or you could just take vitamin D
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torgoguys
2 hours ago
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I don't know much about this, but wouldn't the description of this imply you're stimulating the body to be in an a long-term situation that would be commonly viewed as unpleasant (inflamed, maybe nasal drainage, that type of thing) with the positive tradeoff that you get fewer actual infections?
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MathMonkeyMan
2 hours ago
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Yep! But you are also a mouse who has limited venues in which to complain.

I wonder if the vaccine causes inflammatory and other unpleasant responses when administered. If so, I wonder if those responses go away after the last dose, when the three months of protection begin.

Here are the two paragraphs that I found interesting:

> The new vaccine, for now known as GLA-3M-052-LS+OVA, mimics the T cell signals that directly stimulate innate immune cells in the lungs. It also contains a harmless antigen, an egg protein called ovalbumin or OVA, which recruits T cells into the lungs to maintain the innate response for weeks to months.

> In the study, mice were given a drop of the vaccine in their noses. Some recieved multiple doses, given a week apart. Each mouse was then exposed to one type of respiratory virus. With three doses of the vaccine, mice were protected against SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses for at least three months.

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Terr_
3 minutes ago
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[delayed]
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Animats
1 hour ago
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Right, that's been mentioned elsewhere.

A new area of research has opened up. This approach may be more useful for treatment than prevention. It's not really a vaccine; it's more like an induced vaccine response. Keeping the immune system in that state full time might be a problem. But after an infection, that's what's wanted.

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rzzzt
2 hours ago
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Me neither, but I got something similar from the abstract that I was about to ask, so adding it here: "Following infection, vaccinated mice mounted rapid pathogen-specific T cell and antibody responses and formed ectopic lymphoid structures in the lung."

That latter term (ectopic lymphoid structure) comes up in connection with persistent inflammation where the immune system sets up camp near the problem point. Is this good or bad? Do these go away once the infection clears up?

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dillydogg
39 minutes ago
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These are pretty common, physiologic structures associated with infections. They can be just a handful of cells on a slide or be quite large, and I don't know what they found in these infections. I didn't read the original paper. The ectopic lymphoid structures go away after the infection resolves. It seems that the immune system has ways to set up mini lymph node architecture right by the site of infections, which is very sensible. The same process is going on in a more organized way in the draining lymph node in parallel. Research into these was really hot in the 2010s, but people don't seem to be as into them anymore (but my research has also transitioned to innate immunity from adaptive, so it's likely that I'm no longer in that universe).

In general, it doesn't surprise me that when you prime the innate immune system, the adaptive immune system works well. The problem is that pathogens have an incredible suite of tools ready to evade these mechanisms. The doses of the pathogens are typically insanely high too, which I do not think model natural infections well. Anyways, this is intriguing, so I'll take a look at the original paper one of these days. Vaccine research generally is so boring. It's like, we vaccinated, and it worked, or didn't, no mechanism.

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ivan_gammel
2 hours ago
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Or worse. If it is so easy to activate, there must be an evolutionary reason why we don’t have it.
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MarkusQ
2 hours ago
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Systemic cost.

We could have paper shredders, blenders, toasters, water taps, and so on that just ran all the time, but our utility bills would be ginormous. Same thing for our bodies.

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lokar
1 hour ago
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Or the risk of autoimmune disease?
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Rexxar
59 minutes ago
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Maybe it would made the immune system age faster if it is "used" too much.
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Horatius77
1 hour ago
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Appears that it is trying to stimulate broad immunity .. instead of any one specific virus/disease. Artificial and overstimulation of our immune systems long-term can't be healthy. Definitely a tradeoff here.
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deepriverfish
27 minutes ago
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as someone with chronic nasal allergies, would this work for me?
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ajma
2 hours ago
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In mice
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snitzr
2 hours ago
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Good news! Also, AI thumbnail defies all physical laws.
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SilentM68
1 hour ago
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I'd rather see permanent cures vs the need for repeated jabs: https://diedsuddenlynews.substack.com/p/declassified-cia-doc...
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stevenalowe
29 minutes ago
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Intranasal, no jabs
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SilentM68
23 minutes ago
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Hmm, you are correct. I misread the article. My point is that cures exist, have existed. They've been hidden or dismissed by the powers that be, e.g. people that have controlled the world, and live even here on HackerNews. But worry not, full disclosure is coming soon, along with the end of most authoritarian regimes ;)
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stevenalowe
5 minutes ago
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Disagree. Prevention of many things via broad immunity seems superior to alleged multiple alleged Cures
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SilentM68
6 minutes ago
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:)
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