Publications by authors named "Devon Allies"
Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) is becoming a common procedure for research into infectious disease immunology. Little is known about the clinical factors which influence the main outcomes of the procedure. In research participants who underwent BAL according to guidelines, the BAL volume yield, and cell yield, concentration, viability, pellet colour and differential count were analysed for association with important participant characteristics such as active tuberculosis (TB) disease, TB exposure, HIV infection and recent SARS-CoV-2 infection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) is becoming a common procedure for research into infectious disease immunology. Little is known about the clinical factors which influence the main outcomes of the procedure. In research participants who underwent BAL according to guidelines, the BAL volume yield, and cell yield, concentration, viability, pellet colour and differential count were analysed for association with important participant characteristics such as active tuberculosis (TB) disease, TB exposure, HIV infection and recent SARS-CoV-2 infection.
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- - The study evaluates the safety and effectiveness of a new recombinant BCG vaccine, VPM1002, compared to the traditional BCG vaccine in newborns at risk for tuberculosis, specifically addressing its limited effectiveness in preventing pulmonary tuberculosis.
- - Conducted in South Africa, the double-blind trial included healthy neonates aged 12 days or younger, split into groups that received either VPM1002 or BCG, with careful criteria to exclude those with certain health conditions or who were HIV-positive.
- - The main goal was to establish that VPM1002 is at least as safe as BCG, measured by adverse reactions, while secondary goals included assessing immune responses through levels of specific T cells over a year.
Background: Despite the high global disease burden of tuberculosis (TB), the disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection, novel treatments remain an urgent medical need. Development efforts continue to be hampered by the reliance on culture-based methods, which often take weeks to obtain due to the slow growth rate of Mtb. The availability of a "real-time" measure of treatment efficacy could accelerate TB drug development.
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