Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, and Dickson Despommier
Vincent, Rich, and Dickson review a meta-analysis on influenza vaccine, a killer virus in fungi that selects against RNAi, and the use of armed and targeted poxviruses for oncolytic virotherapy.
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Links for this episode:
- Efficacy and effectiveness of influenza vaccine (Lancet)
- Flu vaccine not as effective as thought (MPRNews)
- Blog posts on flu vaccine meta-analysis (virology blog, alandove, viva)
- Killer virus explains RNAi deficient fungi (Science)
- Poxvirus-based oncotherapy (Nature)
- Jennerex
- TWiV on Facebook
- Letters read on TWiV 156
Weekly Science Picks
Rich – Google’s self-driving car (story one and two)
Dickson – Wild Russia and Wild China TV series
Vincent – Baculovirus molecular biology by George Rohrmann (free)
Listener Pick of the Week
Jim – Lee Cronin: Making matter come alive (TED)
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With respect to the question about the immune response to vaccinia in cancer patients receiving oncolytic virotherapy: wasn’t there a paper a while back that showed (I think it was) orthopox viruses being transmitted directly from one cell to another without really diffusing through the medium to any great extent? (In any event, even if it was a different virus there is the possibility that many viruses are transmitted this way) That direct delivery would tend to reduce the influence of whatever circulating antibodies patients might have. That, and as mentioned the immune suppression of patients due to chemo, might just tip the balance allowing  just enough replication to do the trick.Â