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| Alexander McAdam, MD, PhD, and Sara Vargas, MD |
Insights on a new virus
Two Children's Hospital Boston teams have filled in some blanks
about human metapneumovirus (hMPV), a childhood respiratory virus
first discovered in 2001. One team, led by Alexander
McAdam, MD, PhD, in Laboratory Medicine, tested respiratory
specimens from more than 800 CHB patients. Six percent tested positive
for hMPV, making it the second most common virus found, after respiratory
syncytial virus. hMPV peaked from January through March and was
found most often in children 3 months to 2 years old. Findings appear
in the July issue of the Journal
of Infectious Diseases.
A serendipitous meeting on the #39 bus between McAdam and pathologist
Sara
Vargas, MD, led to another study. Vargas, learning
of McAdam's work, decided to examine pathology specimens from the
hMPV-positive patients. Six such specimens were available, and Vargas
will soon publish detailed findings in the Journal of Pediatric
and Developmental Pathology. Her group is the first to describe
the airway cell and tissue damage caused by hMPV, and their findings
will help pathologists make a diagnosis.
Immunology seeks to make smallpox immunization safer
Children's Hospital Boston is working to address a potentially
life-threatening complication of smallpox immunization, known as
eczema vaccinatum (EV). The goal is to reduce the risk of EV, a
severe skin infection caused by vaccinia, the live virus used in
smallpox vaccine.
Because of recent bioterrorism concerns, the government would like
to reintroduce widespread smallpox immunization, but the risk of
EV has been a major barrier. For reasons that are unknown, this
risk is especially high in people with ordinary eczema. "Since
5 percent of kids and about 1 percent of adults have eczema, the
risk is great, should a decision be made to mass vaccinate,"
says Raif
Geha, MD, chief of Immunology
at Children's.
Children's will conduct clinical and animal studies to explore
why people with eczema are susceptible to EV. Geha will lead animal
work at five subcontracting institutions under a five-year, $10
million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases. His own lab will develop a mouse model for eczema, examine
the immune response to vaccinia virus, seek factors that predispose
mice to EV and test preventive strategies. Hans
Oettgen, MD, PhD, clinical director of Immunology,
will focus on skin abnormalities, comparing immune responses to
vaccinia virus, herpes simplex virus and yellow fever virus.
On the clinical side, Lynda
Schneider, MD, director of the Allergy Program, has
a three-year grant of approximately $450,000. Using varicella—the
virus that causes chickenpox—as a "surrogate" for
smallpox vaccine, her team will compare the immune responses of
children with and without eczema.
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