Brigham and Women’s Hospital Researchers Find Nasal Spray Protects Against Respiratory Illnesses

HMS professor and immunologist Dan H. Barouch ’93, who was not affiliated with the study, said its results could be applied to various respiratory illnesses, beyond those tested during experiments.

“It has the potential of preventing not one but many different respiratory illnesses, and so it could be deployed for many different outbreaks, including outbreaks for which we don’t know the pathogen yet,” he said. Read Full Article

Mpox Vaccine Antibody Responses Waned Within a Year, Study Shows

Barouch and colleagues assessed mpox-specific immune responses for 12 months in 45 individuals who were vaccinated during the 2022 mpox outbreak. The team performed an observational study in adults who received either one or two doses of the MVA-BN vaccine (known by the brand name Jynneos) or who had a confirmed diagnosis of mpox infection, assessing serum antibody and T cell responses at baseline, three weeks, three months, six months, nine months, and 12 months following vaccination. They observed that vaccination generated serum mpox antibodies that largely waned six to 12 months after vaccination.

“Our study highlights the importance of completing the recommended two-dose mpox vaccine, whether subcutaneous or intradermal, to boost immunity—regardless of the time between doses,” said lead author Ai-ris Yonekura Collier, MD, co-director of the Clinical Trials Unit at BIDMC. “In this mpox outbreak, ensuring broad access to the full vaccine series is crucial.”

Serum mpox antibodies correlated with protection against mpox challenge in preclinical studies. Larger human studies are needed to confirm generalizability and to assess vaccine efficacy over time, Barouch said.

Co-authors included Katherine McMahan, MS, Catherine Jacob-Dolan, PhD, Jinyan Liu, PhD, Erica N Borducchi, PhD, of BIDMC; and Bernard Moss, MD, PhD, of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Read Full Article…

Study demonstrates that mpox vaccine antibody responses wane within a year

“The WHO declared the current mpox outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo a ,” said corresponding author Dan H. Barouch, MD, Ph.D., director of the Center for Vaccine and Virology Research at BIDMC. “It is therefore important to assess the infection risk for individuals who were vaccinated against the disease during the 2022 outbreak.” Read Full Article…

CDC says mpox vaccine boosters aren’t needed in the US as questions emerge around waning immunity

“Our data shows that the antibody responses induced by the mpox vaccine are moderate to high titer after the two-dose vaccine,” said Dr. Dan Barouch, lead author of the study and director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. “After six to 12 months, those antibody titers wane quickly and go back almost to baseline levels at 12 months.” Read Full Article…

Triple antibody therapy shows promise for long-lasting HIV control

“Overall, our study showed that three anti-HIV antibodies with significant breadth of neutralization were actually able to maintain virological suppression in the absence of ART at least during the dosing period in a majority of the participants,” said co-corresponding author Boris Juelg, MD, Ph.D., a principal investigator at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard.

“In a smaller subset, this control was maintained up to week 44 even when the antibodies had reached very low levels in the blood. Future studies are now needed to determine the exact mechanisms of control and how long it can last.”

“Our data shows that broadly neutralizing antibodies may offer a new treatment strategy for HIV,” said Barouch, who is also the William Bosworth Castle Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Read Full Article…

 

Covid tied to higher risk of depression, anxiety, PTSD and other conditions, with the unvaccinated most affected, study shows

But the new data may not reflect the current climate, said Dr. Dan Barouch, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, who was not involved in the research.

“It’s a study that only looks at individuals in 2020 and 2021, in the early pre-Omicron days of the pandemic. So the applicability of these data to the current epidemic is not clear, because in 2024, we have a much higher level of population immunity; most people have been infected or vaccinated multiple times,” Barouch said.

“It’s a very different population now than it was in 2020 and 2021. So while this paper is interesting and important, it really reflects a population at a different time in the pandemic, when people’s baseline immunity was very different,” he said. “It really is not clear the extent to which these data are applicable to the current epidemic we have in 2024.” Read Full Article

Could the New Mpox Threat Cause Significant Harm in the U.S.?

Dr. Dan Barouch, a Harvard Medical School virologist, said it was likely the U.S. would see clade I cases. “The absolute risk in the U.S. is currently low,” he said. “Although we need to remain vigilant.” Read Full Article

Twice-yearly shot proves successful at preventing HIV infection among women, trial data shows

The finding of lenacapavir having 100% efficacy for HIV prevention in women “is an important advance for the field, and I think that the field will welcome it as an additional prevention option,” said Dr. Dan Barouch, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

“But I do think it’s important to realize that these data are only in prevention in young women. There is another study that’s still ongoing, that hasn’t been read out yet, in men,” he said. “So, we await more data to learn about the prevention efficacy in men as well.” Read Full Article

How Long Is Covid Contagious?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention once advised
five days of isolation after a positive Covid test, followed by five days of masking when out in public. That is still a reasonable approach, Dr. Barouch said. “It’s believed that after about five days, then contagiousness goes down substantially,” he said, though that, “doesn’t necessarily mean every single person on day six would not be contagious.” Read Full Article

Why are people getting COVID again this summer? What to know about variants, symptoms, and more.

“COVID is going to stay with us probably forever,” said Dr. Dan Barouch, who runs the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. “We need to be vigilant, but we don’t panic.” Read Full Article…