Peter L. Collins This is Me

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1. 1. www.inb-biotechnologies.com

   www.inb-biotechnologies.com/De - [Cached]

   Published on: 9/19/2007   Last Visited: 6/27/2008

   Chair: Peter L. Collins, Ph.D., Senior Investigator, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health (USA)
   ...
   Peter L. Collins, Ph.D., Senior Investigator, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health (USA)

2. 2. Nasal Vaccine Prevents SARS Infection in Monkeys

   www.bromenn.com/healthnews/hea - [Cached]

   Published on: 6/26/2004   Last Visited: 6/27/2004

   The success of the vaccine in monkeys is "a good sign with regard to likely success in humans," said study senior investigator Peter L. Collins of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
   
   "One advantage of this vaccine is that it is designed to be administered intranasally and provides direct immunization of the respiratory tract, which is the major site of SARS transmission, replication and disease," Collins said.
   ...
   In their study, Collins and his team developed a new intranasal vaccine that "piggybacks" a piece of a SARS virus protein onto a weakened form of the parainfluenza virus -- a germ that can cause serious flu in children.
   
   The protein, called SARS S, "is a viral surface protein that was suspected to be important in inducing protective immunity against the SARS virus," Collins explained.
   
   Vaccines typically use a weakened form of virus, or a virus fragment, to "prime" the body against real infection later on.In this case, Collins designed the parainfluenza/SARS vaccine as a nasal inhalant, to better protect the respiratory tract.
   
   His team exposed eight African green monkeys to the SARS virus.Four of the monkeys had received an intranasal dose of the vaccine a month prior to exposure with the virus, while the other four had not.
   
   Testing the vaccinated animals over a period of two weeks following exposure to the virus, "we could not detect any shedding of [SARS virus] in nasal and respiratory tract secretions," Collins said.On the other hand, each of the four unvaccinated primates displayed signs of being actively infected.
   
   These findings were confirmed in a separate study published in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.In that study, Collins' team administered the same vaccine to hamsters, then examined the rodents' lung tissues for traces of the SARS virus.
   
   "None was found, confirming the effectiveness of the vaccine," Collins said.
   ...
   Collins stressed that roadblocks remain.Because most adults have already built up immunity to parainfluenza virus, any vaccine relying on that pathogen would most likely only be effective in infants and small children.He said his team plans to focus next on another strain of parainfluenza virus "that does not commonly infect humans, and so should be able to efficiently immunize adults."
   
   And he stressed that these types of vaccines would be used solely for prevention, not as a treatment in individuals already infected with SARS.According to Collins, experts still don't understand SARS well enough "to know if vaccination during infection would halt disease progression.My guess is that it would not be effective."
   
   Still, he remains optimistic that an effective vaccine will be found.
   
   "Some viruses are very challenging when it comes to vaccine development: the most obvious example is HIV," he said.
   ...
   SOURCES: Peter L. Collins, Ph.D., senior investigator, Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Bethesda, Md.; Robert Garry, Ph.D., professor, microbiology, Tulane University, New Orleans; June 26, 2004, The Lancet; June 21-25, 2004, online edition, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

3. 3. Axygen Biotechnology(Hangzhou)Limited

   www.v-genebio.com/e_news_view. - [Cached]

   Published on: 4/1/2005   Last Visited: 8/9/2006

   'The nose is where the infection attacks, so it is very effective,' says Peter Collins, an infectious disease scientist at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland, who is involved in the study.
   ...
   As it is, the vaccine is only effective in children, because adults are immune to the flu virus being used. 'Now we will try a different virus for adults,' Collins told Nature Science Update.
   
   Vaccine varieties
   
   Collins acknowledges that his approach to developing a SARS vaccine is just one of many, and others may be equally successful. 'All the approaches are good and worth pursuing,' he says.