From: KutchScience
To: 'Dr.H.L.Udeshi' ; 'Dr.M.Azim Sheth' ; 'Dr.Mahesh Punjabi - Kota' ;
'Dr.Shashiben Vani - Ahmedabad' ; 'Dr.Upendra Vasavda - Mehsana' ;
ac54p@... ; 'Dr.S.K.Takker-Baran' ; drskb@... ;
drsahai@... ; drprpatel@... ; drpddoshi19@... ;
drmaltigupta@... ; drdvyas@... ; drdjpatel@... ;
drdilip@... ; 'Dr.Arun Parikh - Himmatnagar'
Sent: Sunday, November 06, 2005 9:00 AM
Subject: Edible vaccines 'to replace jabs'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4393854.stm


Dear Docs,



One in three adults has some form of allergy
An edible allergy vaccine could one day replace injections, a study says.
Jabs, which build up antibodies are used to treat severe forms of
hay-fever and cat and venom allergies, but can sometimes trigger dangerous
reactions.

The Japanese researchers said the rice-based vaccine they tested on mice
is less dangerous and more simple.

They wrote in the journal Proceedings Of The National Academy of Sciences
that it "opens new possibilities" for allergy treatment in the future.

One in four people are estimated to suffer from allergies, ranging from
reactions to food to respiratory and skin allergies.

Courses of injections have to be tightly monitored in hospital so
anything that offers the hope of an easier and safer way to give them is to be
welcomed

Muriel Simmons, of Allergy UK

Most can be controlled by regulating diet and the immediate environment -
or drugs can be taken to limit the symptoms.

But for severe hay-fever and cat allergies, as well as for people with
particularly bad reactions to bee and wasp stings, courses of anti-allergy
injections can be given.

These can take a couple of years to complete and have to be done in
hospital because of the danger of the allergens given in the jabs prompting an
anaphylactic reaction - injections all but stopped for a while in the UK in the
1980s because of a number of deaths.

The vaccine developed by the joint University of Tokyo and Shimane
University team uses genetically-modified rice to build up the immune system.

Risk

The oral vaccine contains only part of the allergen in comparison to
traditional injections and therefore carry less risk of a bad reaction, the
study said.

In the tests on mice allergic to cedar pollen, those taking the rice
vaccine for four weeks showed fewer allergic responses and sneezed less.

Report co-author Hidenori Takagi said the findings "open new
possibilities" for the treatment of allergies.

And he added: "Plant-based vaccines have several potential advantages over
traditional whole-allergen injected vaccines since they are simpler to
administer and cheaper to produce."

But he said more research was needed before a human vaccine could be
produced.

Muriel Simmons, chief executive of Allergy UK, said more research was
needed into treating allergies.

"Courses of injections have to be tightly monitored in hospital so
anything that offers the hope of an easier and safer way to give them is to be
welcomed."


Forwarded by Dr.BHUDIA-Science Group Of INDIA.
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/venustransit_2004/
President:"Kutch Science Foundation".
Founder :"Kutch Amateurs Astronomers Club - Bhuj - Kutch".
Life Member:"kutch Itihaas Parishad".
kutchscience@..., kutchscience@...,
http://uk.geocities.com/wildlifeofkutch/


http://www.geocities.com/kutchscience
http://profiles.yahoo.com/kutchscience2000
http://in.groups.yahoo.com/group/scienceclubofindia
http://in.groups.yahoo.com/group/kutchscience
http://in.groups.yahoo.com/group/kachchh
http://in.groups.yahoo.com/group/bhuj

Do visit our ABOVE Clubs/Groups of Science club of India, Science
Group of India.




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]