Pharmaceutical Biotechnology
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Edited By:Carlos Alberto GuzmánDepartment of Vaccinology, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research Giora Feuerstein Wyeth Research ISBN: TBA Published: 2008-09-01 |
Chapters available from this book
Immune Interventions of Human Diseases through Toll-Like Receptors
Cevayir Coban, Ken J. Ishii and Shizuo Akira
Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are the immune sensors for infections, triggering robust innate immune activation followed by protective adaptive immunity against various infectious diseases. Recent evidence, however, has suggested that TLRs are involved in the pathogenesis of many diseases, including no...
Virus‑Like Particles as a Vaccine Delivery System: Myths and Facts
Polly Roy and Rob Noad
Vaccines against viral disease have traditionally relied on attenuated virus strains or inactivation of infectious virus. Subunit vaccines based on viral proteins expressed in heterologous systems have been effective for some pathogens, but have often suffered from poor immunogenicity due to incorre...
The Antigenome: From Protein Subunit Vaccines to Antibody Treatments of Bacterial Infections
Carmen Giefing, Eszter Nagy and Alexander von Gabain
New strategies are needed to master infectious diseases. The so-called “passive vaccination”, i.e., prevention and treatment with specific antibodies, has a proven record and potential in the management of infections and entered the medical arena more than 100 years ago. Progress in the identificati...
The Role of Nanobiotechnology in Drug Discovery
Kewal K. Jain
The potential applications of nanotechnology in life sciences, particularly nanobiotechnology, include those for drug discovery. This review shows how several of the nanotechnologies including nanoparticles and various nanodevices such as nanobiosensors and nanobiochips are being used to improve dru...
Natural Products in Drug Discovery: Present Status and Perspectives
Gabriella Molinari
Natural products and their derivatives have been and continue to be rich sources for drug discovery. However, natural products are not drugs. They are produce in nature and through biological assays they are identified as leads, which become candidates for drug development. More than 60% of the drug...
Immune Modulators with Defined Molecular Targets: Cornerstone to Optimize Rational Vaccine Design
Thomas Ebensen and Carlos A. Guzmán
Vaccination remains the most valuable tool for preventing infectious diseases. However, the performance of many existing vaccines should be improved and there are diseases for which vaccines are still not available. The use of well‑defined antigens for the generation of subunit vaccines has le...
HSV as a Vector in Vaccine Development and Gene Therapy
Peggy Marconi, Rafaela Argnani, Alberto L. Epstein and Roberto Manservigi
The very deep knowledge acquired on the genetics and molecular biology of herpes simplex virus (HSV), major human pathogen whose lifestyle is based on a long-term dual interaction with the infected host characterized by the existence of lytic and latent infections, has allowed the development of pot...
Conotoxin Venom Peptide Therapeutics
Richard J. Lewis
Venom peptides offer enormous opportunity for the discovery of peptide drug leads. This review focusses on the potential of cone snails that have developed arrays of small peptides as part of highly evolved venoms used for prey capture and defence. Many of these peptides selectively modulate ion cha...
Genome‑Based Vaccine Development: A Short Cut for the Future
Danilo Gomes Moriel, Maria Scarselli, Laura Serino, Marirosa Mora, Rino Rappuoli and Vega Masignani
Bacterial infectious diseases remain a major cause of deaths and disabilities in the world. Although conventional vaccinology approaches were successful in conferring protection against several diseases, they failed in providing efficient vaccines against many others. Together to the sequencing of t...
Applications of Bacterial Ghosts in Biomedicine
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Bacterial Ghosts (BG) are empty cell envelopes of Gram‑negative bacteria which have been produced by E‑mediated lysis. BG are devoid of cytoplasmic content and in combination with the expression of the nuclease SNUC, BG are also devoid of chromosomal and plasmid DNA. Proof of concept and...
Protein Pharmaceuticals: Discovery and Preclinical Development
Davinder S. Gill
Proteins are natural molecules that carry out important cellular functions within our bodies. Their precise role is crucial to the maintenance of good health. Malfunctioning proteins or those not produced optimally result in disease. The foundation of biopharmaceutical drug therapy has therefore bee...
New Strategies to Overcome the Drawbacks of Currently Available Flu Vaccines
Epifanio Fichera, Diana Felnerova, Robert Mischler, Jean-François Viret and Reinhard Glueck
Vaccination represents the most efficient tool to control morbidity and mortality resulting from influenza infections in humans. The currently licensed influenza vaccines provide good protection levels in healthy adults, whereas lower protection is generally achieved in ageing individuals who are at...
Translational Medicine--a Paradigm Shift in Modern Drug Discovery and Development: The Role of Biomarkers
Mark Day, J. Lynn Rutkowski and Giora Feuerstein
The success rate of novel medical entities that are submitted for registration by the regulatory agencies and followed successful marketing has been stagnating for the past decade. Failure in efficacy and safety continue to be the prime hurdles and causes of failure. Translational medicine is a new ...
Innovative Approaches to Develop Prophylactic and Therapeutic Vaccines against HIV/AIDS
Aurelio Cafaro, Iole Macchia , Maria Teresa Maggiorella, Fausto Titti and Barbara Ensoli
The acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) emerged in the human population in the summer of 1981. According to the latest United Nations estimates, worldwide over 33 million people are infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the prevalence rates continue to rise globally. To control ...
