The science is clear: Vaccines are safe, effective, and do not cause autism

Johns Hopkins public health expert Daniel Salmon discusses vaccine safety and the potential hazards posed by fewer children being vaccinated

Scientists and medical experts were alarmed Tuesday by news reports of a Trump Tower meeting between President-elect Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., two men who have promoted widely debunked anti-vaccination theories suggesting a link between vaccines and autism.

Kennedy said Trump asked him to chair a new commission on vaccine safety, though a Trump spokeswoman later said no final decision had been made.

From The Washington Post:

If Trump follows through, the stunning move would push up against established science, medicine and the government's position on the issue. It comes after Trump—who has long been critical of vaccines—met at Trump Tower with Kennedy, who has spearheaded efforts to roll back child vaccination laws.

For more information on vaccine safety and insight on the potential public health dangers of promoting anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, the Hub reached out to Daniel Salmon, an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Salmon is deputy director of JHU's Institute for Vaccine Safety, and his research and practice focuses on optimizing the prevention of childhood infectious diseases through the use of vaccines.

Are vaccines safe and effective?

Vaccines are very safe and very effective. Vaccines routinely recommended in the U.S. today provide high levels of protection against targeted diseases.

The benefits of vaccines greatly outweigh their risks. The safest decision for parents is to vaccinate their children according to the recommended schedule.

The most variability in vaccine effectiveness is with flu or influenza vaccines, where effectiveness varies by year and how well the vaccine that year matches the circulating influenza viruses. During seasons when the flu vaccine matches most circulating flu viruses, flu vaccines reduce the risk of flu illness by 50-60% in the overall population. Vaccine effectiveness can be higher or lower for subpopulations depending on their ability to fully respond to the vaccine.

The effectiveness of other vaccines routinely used in the U.S. varies, but for most vaccines, 80-99% of vaccinated people are protected. Two doses of MMR, or Measles-Mumps-Rubella, vaccine, for example, provides about 99% protection against measles.

Adverse reactions to vaccines are either minor or very rare. Common adverse reactions include fever, tiredness, and a sore arm. Serious adverse events are very, very rare. For example, some vaccines cause fever in children and very rarely, febrile seizures. Febrile seizures can be scary for parents but have not been shown to cause long-term disabilities or problems.

Influenza vaccination in recent years has been associated with a very small increased risk of Guillain-Barré Syndrome, or GBS, in adults, leading to about 1-3 excess cases of GBS per million persons vaccinated. This is much less than the estimated risk after wild-type influenza infection, providing further evidence that the benefits of influenza vaccination greatly outweigh the risks.

Is there any scientific evidence of a connection between vaccines and autism?

No. Vaccines in routine use in the United States do not cause autism. There have been 13 methodologically sound, controlled epidemiological studies reporting no association between autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and receipt of MMR vaccine, thimerosal in vaccine, and simultaneous vaccination with multiple vaccines, in addition to the relevant systematic reviews and one meta-analysis.

The evidence from all studies, including methodologically flawed studies, have been reviewed by the Institute of Medicine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. All have concluded that vaccines do not cause autism or ASD.

Are there any compelling medical reasons that parents would not have their children vaccinated, even in limited cases?

There are people for whom some vaccines are contraindicated, or who are vaccinated with precautions. The manufacturers of vaccines with approval from the FDA include contraindications in the package labels. The CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics provide more detailed information and recommendations for individuals and populations that should or should not receive individual vaccines. For example, persons with severe immunocompromising conditions—such as leukemia or untreated AIDS, or those who have had a bone marrow transplant—should not receive live vaccines.

What are the public health ramifications of fewer children being vaccinated?

Unvaccinated children are at increased risk of acquiring disease and transmitting these diseases to other children. Drops in vaccine coverage have resulted in outbreaks and resurgence of diseases. Vaccine refusal has been associated with outbreaks of invasive Haemophilus influenzae type b disease, varicella, pneumococcal disease, measles, and pertussis in the United States and other countries. For example, parts of Europe have seen large outbreaks of measles as some parents are refusing measles vaccines for their children amid safety concerns. In the 1970s and 1980s, many countries—Japan, the U.K., Sweden—saw a major resurgence of pertussis, also known as whooping cough, as safety concerns led to substantial drops in pertussis vaccine coverage.

FAVORITE IMAGES OF THE WEEK - 3

Western Nanofabrication Facility

The World's Smallest Snowman

This snowman, which was promoted on Tumblr this Wednesday in honor of the winter solstice, is only 3 microns tall, making it the world's smallest. The snowman's body is made of 3 precisely cut 0.9 micron silica spheres that were pieced together by scanning a beam of electrons, a method often used to create teeny tiny unique shapes. The nose is made of platinum.

H/T Corey S. Powell via Twitter

WWF

Biodiversity Can Be Really Cute

This newt here, called Tylototriton anguliceps, is one of 163 animals found along the Mekong River in Southeast Asia that entered the new species class of 2015. It's nicknamed the Klingon newt, after the extraterrestrial humanoid species in Star Trek. Also listed is a David Bowie-esque snake that boasts quite glamorous scales.

Courtesy of NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Hohonu Moana 2016

Casper The Octopus Is In Danger

This ghost-like octopus was just discovered last year off the coast of Hawaii, but already scientists think it might be in danger. These octopods lay their eggs on one particular type of sponge that grows on top of manganese deposits. Manganese is currently a heavily-mined mineral because of its usefulness in producing mobile phones and other tech gadgets. For now, because of a sufficient amount of manganese on Earth's surface, these animals are safe. But scientists don't know for how long.

Frederic Osada and Teddy Seguin/DRASSM/Stanford

Humanoid Diver

Who better to explore a dangerous underwater archaeological site than a human that's not actually a human? Stanford researchers built this hybrid humanoid/ROV robot that can reach dangerous depths of the ocean so humans don't have to. Unlike other ROVs, which are incredibly boxy and lack dexterity, this humanoid has two hands that real humans can manipulate to make the robot perform delicate tasks undersea.

H/T: IEEE Spectrum

NASA Earth Observatory image by Joshua Stevens

Desert Snow

Some deserts—ones that are very high up in altitude—get snow all the time. But the African Sahara rarely gets the pleasure of a white Christmas. This week though, snow blanketed the area, as seen in the satellite image above. The last time scientists recorded snow falling in this area was in February 1979. Read about this strange weather event—and other surprising snow days—here.

Найден новый генетический механизм, открывающий потенциал терапии онкологических и других заболеваний

Резюме. Протеин ретинобластомы (pRB) может играть ведущую роль в механизме терапии указанных заболеваний

Протеин ретинобластомы (Retinoblastoma protein — pRB) ранее известен своей ролью в клеточной пролиферации и профилактике онкологических заболеваний. По результатам недавнего исследования, проведенного сотрудниками Исследовательского института здоровья Лоусона (Lawson Health Research Institute), Канада, ученые предложили новый, более расширенный взгляд на функцию указанного протеина, предполагающий его терапевтические возможности в лечении пациентов с онкологическими и некоторыми другими заболеваниями, такими как ВИЧ-инфекция/СПИД.

Большая часть генома ДНК человека представляет собой повторяющиеся последовательности, называемые «мусорной ДНК». Предполагается, что такие последовательности не вносят какого-либо позитивного вклада в физиологию организма и, как правило, не имеют фенотипических проявлений. Если же они участвуют в процессе репликации, то, включаясь в геном, способны повреждать гены и влиять на развитие таких заболеваний, как рак.

Команда исследователей под руководством доктора Фреда Дика (Fred Dick) впервые показала, что протеин ретинобластомы функционирует совместно с другим протеином, называемым EZH2, ингибируя фенотипическое проявление «мусорной ДНК». Функция протеина EZH2 заключается в «маркировке» ДНК-последовательностей, которые должны быть заблокированы либо «выключены» из физиологической экспрессии клеткой. Оказалось, что протеин ретинобластомы функционирует как транспортер, доставляющий белок EZH2 к местам локализации этих повторяющихся последовательностей. По словам авторов исследования, новые данные открывают бесконечные возможности для терапии при множестве заболеваний, в том числе противовирусными средствами, и это может предоставить пациентам новый выбор в лечении.

В настоящее время ряд препаратов проходят клинические испытания относительно активации функциональной активности протеина ретинобластомы pRB или блокирования EZH2, и центром внимания данных исследований является изучение механизма влияния указанных протеинов на процессы клеточного роста. Протеин ретинобластомы pRB позиционируется как фактор, контролирующий рост клеток, в то время как протеин EZH2 в определенных ситуациях может подвергаться активации с последующим развитием некоторых видов онкологических заболеваний и блокировать фенотипическое проявление генов, способствующих контролю клеточного роста.

В целом результаты настоящего исследования позволяют предположить, что препараты, именуемые ингибиторами протеина EZH2, могут применяться в качестве целевой иммунотерапии при определенных видах онкологических заболеваний. Поскольку же блокирование протеина EZH2 приводит к фенотипическому выражению «мусорной ДНК», то для иммунной системы раковые клетки будут выглядеть как пораженные вирусной инфекцией, что сделает их «распознаваемыми» и повысит шансы их элиминации иммунными механизмами организма.

Результаты проведенной работы также открывают ряд возможностей в лечении пациентов со множеством других заболеваний. В частности, механизмы, посредством которых фрагменты «мусорной ДНК» избегают иммунного контроля организма, подобны таковым при ВИЧ-инфекции/СПИДе. Поэтому, основываясь на выводах недавнего исследования, ингибиторы протеина Ezh2 можно применять для проявления маскированных вирусных фрагментов при данном заболевании с тем, чтобы в дальнейшем использовать активную вирусную экспрессию для целенаправленной терапии антиретровирусными препаратами.

• Ishak Ch.A., Marshall A.E. et al. (2016) An RB-EZH2 complex mediates silencing of repetitive DNA sequences. Mol. Cell, 64(6): 1074–1087 (http://www.cell.com/molecular-cell/abstract/S1097-2765(16)30666-9?_returnURL=http%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS1097276516306669%3Fshowall%3Dtrue).
• Lawson Health Research Institute (2016) Groundbreaking discovery has potential to improve therapies for cancer and other diseases. Sci. Bul., Dec. 15 (http://sciencebulletin.org/archives/8242.html).

Наталья Савельева-Кулик

Human brain and teeth evolution not linked — Surprise!

Researchers long thought the human brain (blue) got bigger as our teeth (eccru) got smaller, but a new study tells a different story. Image courtesy of: Aida Gómez-Robles.

By Gemma Tarlach

Sure, the human brain is a big deal, literally. But if you put the average human in a primate family reunion photo op that included our nearest living relatives, such as chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas, and told all of them to smile wide for the camera, one thing would be very apparent: when it comes to teeth, man, we puny humans are total lightweights.

For a long time, it’s been assumed that as our brains got bigger and more bodacious, our teeth shrank proportionately. Who needs a giant set of chompers when you’re such a smartypants that you can make tools to slice and dice your food and then cook it over a fire? But a new study says hang on, now — looks like our big brains and tiny teeth aren’t linked after all.

Published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study compared brain size evolution with reduced tooth size rates in eight hominin species: two australopiths (A. africanus and A. afarensis, roughly 1.9-2.9 million years old), two members of Paranthropus (P. robustus and P. boisei, 900,000-1.2 million years old) and four examples from our own genus Homo (H. habilis, H. erectus, H. neanderthalensis, from the last 1.7 million years, and modern humans).

Although conventional wisdom has pointed to co-evolution of the big human brain, little human teeth traits, the study showed the rate of brain size evolution varied from one species to the next with occasional bouts of rapid development.

Brain shape evolution, which is also linked to higher cognitive function, seemed to have a generally more stable rate of change. Meanwhile, the reduction in size of teeth, particularly the molars and other chewing (rather than biting) teeth, occurred at a steadier rate that did not appear linked to brain size or shape development.

The fastest “spurt” in brain size increase occurred between H. habilis and H. erectus; overall the trend towards bigger brains is, perhaps no surprise, speediest along the Homo line, leaving Australopithecus and Paranthropus in the dust.

Fun fact: we used to think big brains were needed to fashion stone tools, too, but the world’s oldest known stone tools, described in 2015, date from the age of australopiths, well before our brainiac genus. As we find more hominin fossils and create ever more sophisticated techniques to analyze and understand them, expect more old school ideas to go extinct.

The team concluded that different environmental and behavioral influences were at work in human brain and teeth evolution rates, though speculating on what those influences might have been went beyond the scope of their research.

The Human Body Has Another Organ: The Mesentery

(Credit: J Calvin Coffey/D Peter O’Leary/Henry Vandyke Carter)

By Nathaniel Scharping

To the 78 organs that make up the human body, we can add one more: the mesentery.

Located in our abdominal cavity, the mesentery is a belt of tissue that holds our intestines in place. While anatomists knew it was there, it was always thought to be composed of several different segments, as opposed to being one single structure. This knocked it out of contention for organ status, as our bodily organs must be continuous, as well as provide some vital function to our anatomy.

A new study from researchers at the University Hospital Limerick reveals that the mesentery is actually one single band of tissue, beginning at the pancreas and continuing down through the small intestine and colon, wrapping around these vital organs to hold them tight and help them maintain their structure. It is made of a folded-over ribbon of peritoneum, a type of tissue usually found lining the abdominal cavity.

“Without it you can’t live,” says J. Calvin Coffey, a Limerick University Hospital researcher and colorectal surgeon. “There are no reported instances of a Homo sapien living without a mesentery.”

It was by peeling away the peritoneum and repeated observations that Coffey built his case for the mesentery. In 2012, Coffey’s team determined the mesentery was indeed a single, connected structure. In this most recent study, published in The Lancet, Coffey’s team outlines evidence collected over four years that affirms the mesentery’s organ status. The mesentery is highly integrated with the intestine, he says, and is located in an area of the human body that has not been fully explored — we still, apparently, contain new frontiers.

And, according to The Independent, the seminal medical textbook Gray’s Anatomy was updated in 2015 to include the new definition of the mesentery. However, Coffey isn’t exactly sure when an organ is officially an organ.

“That’s a fascinating question. I actually don’t know who the final arbiter of that is,” says Coffey.

In apes and other creatures that walk on all fours, he says that the structure of the mesentery, and the organs it supports, is slightly different, which affects the layout of their guts. Understanding how and why our digestive system is arranged the way it is could be crucial to our understanding of diseases like Crohn’s and irritable bowel syndrome.

“There are a lot of disease that we are stalled on, and we need to refresh our approach to these diseases,” Coffey says. “Now that we’ve clarified its structure, we can systematically examine it. We’re at a very exciting place right now.”

The era of mesenteric science has begun.

FAVORITE IMAGES OF THE WEEK - 2

NASA

Hurricane Tracker

A NASA mission called the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS), which includes eight small satellites, launched this week. Its goal is to better understand how hurricanes form in order to more accurately predict how and when they will occur. One advantage of this system is that it will focus only on areas around the tropics, where most hurricanes form.

XPRIZE

Patient, Diagnose Thyself

In many ways, the tricorder in Star Trek is the ultimate piece of medical technology: A handheld device that can diagnose any disease in the body. In 2012, tech company Qualcomm created an XPRIZE competition to challenge engineers and doctors to create a device similar to the fictional tool. We took a first look at the two finalists' prototypes, which show us that our future doctor might simply be a tiny, high-tech medical box.

Joshua Stevens/NASA Earth Observatory

Snow Light

The weather these past two weeks has been rough for communities around the Great Lakes. Last week, the region was smothered with several feet of snow, and this week, an arctic air mass piled a few more feet on top. The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP satellite, which can detect even extremely dim light sources, took this image above. The white areas show where the full moon is reflecting off of large piles of snow.

Department of Transportation

Talking Cars

Behind the wheel, humans make mistakes and cause accidents. That's mostly because we have bad communication skills (among other reasons). To make roads safer, the U.S. Department of Transportation wants cars to "talk" to each other. New technology that forces cars to broadcast their surroundings to other vehicles might prevent many accidents in the future.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

Dry Ice Bubbles

These crazy land formations, which look more like human intestines, can only be found on the south pole of Mars. They form when dry ice (carbon dioxide), which makes up the pole, is punctuated with holes. Over time, air slowly leaks in and puffs up the surface.

T.H. Prettyman and N. Yamashita, Planetary Science Institute

Ceres On Ice

Scientists are pretty sure that Ceres, the dwarf planet between Mars and Jupiter, holds water. But a new paper out this week suggests that it might contain more than liquid H2O: A portion of its surface, particularly near the poles, could be coated in a thin layer of ice. Studying how it built up there will help researchers understand how ice forms all over our solar system.

Особенности восприятия звуков и музыки генетически детерминированы

Резюме. Характер влияния музыки и шума на эмоциональные реакции и физиологическую активность головного мозга обусловлен генетически детерминированной функциональностью рецепторов дофамина

Окружающие нас звуки оказывают индивидуальное воздействие на настроение и эмоции каждого отдельного человека. Предполагают, что музыкальные звуки и шумы обладают способностью влиять на эмоциональное состоя­ние личности, вероятно, при посредничестве дофамина — нейромедиатора, принимающего активное участие в регуляции эмоционального поведения и настроения. Однако взаимосвязь между звуковым окружением и настроением и/или эмоциями достаточно вариабельна у разных индивидуумов. Вероятной основой такой вариабельности считается генетический фон.

В связи с этим результаты нового визуализированного генетического исследования под руководством профессора Эльвиры Браттико (Elvira Brattico) из Орхусского университета (Aarhus University), Дания, проведенного в двух итальянских госпиталях при сотрудничестве с Университетом Хельсинки (University of Helsinki), Финляндия, впервые подтвердили гипотезу о том, что влияние музыки и шумов на аффективное поведение и физиологию головного мозга связано с генетически обусловленной функциональной активностью дофамина.

В частности, в данной работе, опубликованной в издании «Neuroscience», продемонстрировано, что функциональные изменения гена рецепторов дофамина D2 (DRD2 rs1076560) изменяют восприятие и влияние музыки, в отличие от шума на настроение и активность префронтальной и стриарной зон головного мозга, регулирующих эмоциональные процессы, что свидетельствует о дифференциальной восприимчивости аффективно-­модуляторных воздействий музыки и шума генотипами GG и GT. Более детальные результаты показали улучшение настроения после музыкального воздействия у лиц с генотипом GG и противоположный эффект после воздействия шума на индивидуумов с генотипом GT. Кроме того, музыка, в отличие от шумового воздействия, понижала активность стриарной зоны головного мозга у лиц с генотипом GT, равно как и активность префронтальных участков коры больших полушарий у индивидуумов с генотипом GG при обработке эмоциональных реакций.

Такие результаты получены впервые при определении биологической основы вариабельности эффекта звуковой среды на эмоциональный отклик. Ведущий автор исследования Тициана Кварто (Tiziana Quarto), аспирант Университета Хельсинки, комментируя работу, отметила, что данный подход позволил наблюдать взаимосвязь между генами и фенотипами, основываясь на истинно биологическом методе, исходящем из функциональных генетических вариаций (тех, для которых известны эффекты молекулярной функциональности на физиологию мозга, опосредующую поведенческие реакции). Применение такого подхода особенно значимо, когда исследуемое поведение отличается сложностью и субъективным разнообразием, что означает вовлеченность множества биологических факторов.

Профессор Э. Браттико подчеркнула, что данное исследование является первым опытом применения визуализированного генетического подхода в области музыки и звуков в целом. Значимость результатов, по мнению авторов работы, определяется именно биологическим подтверждением гипотезы о том, что даже нефармакологические вмешательства, такие как музыка, могут регулировать настроение и эмоциональные реакции на поведенческом и нейрональном уровне. И что еще более важно, полученные новые данные смогут оправданно стимулировать научный поиск в области персонализированного музыкального воздействия для лечения пациентов с заболеваниями головного мозга, обусловленными нарушениями дофаминергической нейротрансмиссии, а также связанных с этим эмоциональных нарушений и аффективных расстройств.

• Aarhus University (2016) Music in the brain: The first imaging genetic study linking dopaminergic genes to music. Sci. Bul., Dec. 22 (http://sciencebulletin.org/archives/8506.html).
• Quarto T., Fasano M.C., Taurisano P. et al. (2016) Interaction between DRD2 variation and sound environment on mood and emotion-related brain activity. Neuroscience, 341: 9–17.

Наталья Савельева-Кулик