Our Life in Bits And Pieces

Search about this after I saw about it on Japan's local news, and found this article.

Can someone from medical field explain this to me coz I don't really understand it. What I understand is they did used cells derived from a dog's kidney - which is oh tak dapat ku nak bayangkan dan ungkapkan kehorrorannya! Or did I get it wrong?? Or sbb just derived cells hukumnyer lain ker mcm mana??? I'm not good at this so tak berani nak ckp apa...can someone ungkaikan kemusykilanku ini???!!!

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This article has a description of the cell-based process

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Flu Vaccine 2009 Produced, Ready for Testing

Flu Cell Tissue Cultures Used for Pandemic Swine H1N1 Vaccine

© Donald Reinhardt

Jun 12, 2009

The MCDK cell flu vaccine, prepared in large fermenters and later purified, will be tested to determine its effectiveness for immune protection against swine H1N1 flu.

The technology for flu vaccines has taken a dramatic, new and very good turn. Chicken eggs are no longer the main stay for production of flu vaccines, and that is good news as will be seen below. Soon millions of doses of highly-protective vaccine should be available throughout the world. Vaccination costs will run into the billions world-wide and that large expense for producing safe and effective vaccines can save lives and prevent illness.

Cell and Tissue Culture Vaccines Compared with Egg-Based Influenza Vaccines

The important production time and allergy considerations for vaccine production are compared below:

?Egg-based vaccines take 6-9 months to get into full production, may produce egg allergies or exacerbate allergies in people who have them.

?Cell Culture-derived vaccines are up and running into full production within weeks and massive large amounts can be produced without fear ofegg allergy problems.

Flu Cell and Tissue Culture-Derived Vaccines, What They Are, How They Work

Here are the Novartis procedures for production of the new flu vaccine:

?MDCK cells (derived in 1958 from a healthy dog's kidney) are removed from a deep freezer at -196 degrees centigrade and thawed . These cells are optimal for flu virus production.

?Cells are added to 10 L stainless steel incubators in clean rooms to maintain ?sterile? conditions. The cells proliferate into large,suspended tissue masses while incubated in liquid-based nutrient medium at controlled pH and temperature that is monitored constantly by computerized technology. After adequate growth, transfers are made to100 L and 1,000 L tanks. Three weeks later the cells are ready forviral inoculations and the proliferation and production of viruses.

?Cells are piped to a 2,500 L fermenter with fresh nutrients and flu viruses are added. The viruses attach to the cells, enter, replicate,kill the cells and seek any remaining viable kidney cells. A few days later, the viruses abound in the culture fluid.

?Column chromatography is used for the separation of culture cells from viruses,

?Ultrafiltration is used to concentrate the viruses to 100X (now 25 liters of the original 2500L).

?Viruses are inactivated chemically and only the surface H and N antigens are used.

Swine H1N1 Flu Cell Vaccine Production Final Steps

Typical flu vaccine always contains three of the predominant circulating viruses in the world population. Thus, three different vaccine batches must be combined to produce a single vaccine. Novartis reports that every 3 X 2500 L batch generates 450,000 flu vaccine unitsfor immunization. At the mixing and filling stage the process has taken a total of 16 weeks, 4 months to complete.

There is another cave at to all this. The influenza viruses are notorious for shifts and drifts in their genetics.

If a new strain be produced by gene mutations or recombination, then any current vaccine could be only partially or minimally protective.This is just another reason why life never simple or straight forward.Stay alert and be informed.

http://human-infections.suite101.com...xzz0IOArTHSt&D