Immunogenicity, safety, and tolerability of the measles-vectored chikungunya virus vaccine MV-CHIK: a double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled and active-controlled phase 2 trial.

Background: Chikungunya fever is an emerging viral disease and substantial threat to public health. We aimed to assess the safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity of a live-attenuated, measles-vectored chikungunya vaccine (MV-CHIK).

Methods: In this double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled and active-controlled phase 2 trial, we enrolled healthy volunteers aged 18-55 years at four study sites in Austria and Germany.

Influence of the Surfactant Tyloxapol on Mucociliary Clearance in Human Respiratory Cystic Fibrosis Cells.

Dehydration of the apical surface of cystic fibrosis (CF) airway epithelia leads to a greatly impaired mucociliary clearance function in CF patients. In an in vitro cell model of human airway epithelia taken from CF patients and cultivated for 60 days, mucociliary clearance was zero. Tyloxapol, a synthetic surfactant, is able to restore the mucociliary clearance of the CF epithelia.

About the Therapy of Laryngotracheitis (Croup): Significance of Rectal Dosage Forms.

Glucocorticoids are drugs of choice for treatment of laryngotracheitis (croup). They may be administered orally as tablets or juice, locally as inhalation or rectally as suppository or capsule. If doctors decide to use a rectal administration for practical reasons, it is obvious from a pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic point of view that prednisolone capsules have an earlier and stronger anti-inflammatory effect than a prednisone suppository.

[Diabetes and osteoporosis: pathophysiological interactions and clinical importance for geriatric patients].

Osteoporosis is an age-associated disease, resulting in impaired bone quality and increased risk for bone fractures. Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus have--despite a normal or even increased bone mineral density--an increased risk for fractures, which is related to an imbalance between osteoblastic bone formation and osteoclastic resorption. Complex pathophysiological mechanisms associated with insulin resistance and hyperglycemia are involved in the deleterious effects on osteoblast function and bone formation.