Preclinical evaluation of Vaxfectin-adjuvanted Vero cell-derived seasonal split and pandemic whole virus influenza vaccines.

Increasing the potency and supply of seasonal and pandemic influenza vaccines remains an important unmet medical need which may be effectively accomplished with adjuvanted egg- or cell culture-derived vaccines. Vaxfectin, a cationic lipid-based adjuvant with a favorable safety profile in phase 1 plasmid DNA vaccines trials, was tested in combination with seasonal split, trivalent and pandemic whole virus, monovalent influenza vaccines produced in Vero cell cultures. Comparison of hemagglutination inhibition (HI) antibody titers in Vaxfectin-adjuvanted to nonadjuvanted vaccinated mice and guinea pigs revealed 3- to 20-fold increases in antibody titers against each of the trivalent influenza virus vaccine strains and 2- to 8-fold increases in antibody titers against the monovalent H5N1 influenza virus vaccine strain.

Application of the Laplace operator to scintigraphic images: comparison with conventional scintigraphy and digital filtering.

The curvature scintigram is an image, obtained by applying the Laplace operator to nuclear medicine images, that shows local variations of count rate density. Applications to liver scintigrams are described. The diagnostic quality of the curvature scintigram is compared with that of the conventional and digitally filtered scintigrams, using a series of patients who have been categorized by histology or by transmission computer tomography.