Good news for malaria vaccine...

The Phase IIb success of a malaria vaccine developed by GlaxoSmithKline and the Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) has provided the first real hope for protection against the disease. RTS,S/AS02A acts against the most deadly strain of the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, at the 'pre-erythrocytic stage'; that is, before the red blood cells become infected. During the first six months of the trial in Mozambique on 2,000 healthy children aged 1–4 years, 58% fewer children developed severe malaria with the vaccine, which is a fusion of immunogenic components from the surface of P. falciparum sporozoites with hepatitis B surface antigen, plus a proprietary adjuvant. Alonso, P. et al. Lancet 364, 1411–1420 (2004).

...but bad news for flu vaccine

Chiron has announced that it will not supply its influenza vaccine Fluvirin for the 2004–2005 influenza season, due to bacterial contamination of some of the doses. The United States felt the brunt of this vaccine shortage, as Chiron was expected to supply nearly half of the 100 million doses expected. Aventis-Pasteur, the other supplier of flu vaccines in the US, said it had made some extra doses of its flu vaccine to help address the problem.

Parkinson's trial halted

One of the most promising treatments in development for Parkinson's disease has faced a setback. Initial analysis of the preliminary Phase II data showed no clinical improvement in patients given Amgen's glial-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) compared with placebo after six months of treatment. But 4 out of the 34 subjects produced antibodies to the GDNF protein, raising fears that this could trigger a dangerous immune reaction with prolonged treatment. Researchers are trying to understand the discrepancy between these results and an earlier trial on 5 patients with GDNF who showed a dramatic recovery in their movements.

Nobel Prizes announced

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2004 was jointly awarded to Aaron Ciechanover, Avram Hershko and Irwin Rose for the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation. Their work showed how a molecule called ubiquitin acts as a 'kiss of death' by fastening onto a protein to be destroyed, and accompanying it to the proteasome, where it is degraded. The Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to Richard Axel and Linda Buck for their discoveries of odour receptors and the organization of the olfactory system.

Dogs sniff out cancer

Man's best friend could now be even more precious, as their super-sensitive noses might be able to detect cancer. Carolyn Willis at Amersham Hospital, UK, and her team trained six dogs of varying breeds to identify the urine of patients with bladder cancer, as it is thought that tumours release molecules into the urine that have a characteristic smell. The trained dogs were asked to choose between laboratory dishes of seven types of urine and to lie down in front of the one from a cancer patient. The dogs were correct more than 40% of the time, much greater than the 14% figure that would be expected if they chose by chance. Willis C. M. et al. BMJ 329, 712–714 (2004).