Hospital Cases
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| Professor Frazer |
Research facilities and centres in hospitals are a hub for vital breakthroughs in medical science.
Amidst the buzz and bustle at Brisbane’s hospitals are a dedicated group of UQ researchers trying to find cures for some of the major ills afflicting humankind.
The UQ scientists based at the Princess Alexandra Hospital and at the Herston Medical Research Centre at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital conduct their research in close collaboration with medical specialists.
One of the many shining success stories resulting from this research is a cervical cancer vaccine, pioneered by UQ’s Professor Ian Frazer, which is expected to be commercially available next year. Phase III clinical trials involving approximately 25,000 patients worldwide are close to completion and the outcome is expected to mirror earlier trial results which showed the vaccine to be 95 to 100 percent effective.
Professor Frazer, Head of the Centre for Immunology and Cancer Research (CICR), hailed the vaccine as a “world first”.
“It is the first time a vaccine for cancer has been developed and it has happened right here in Australia,” Professor Frazer said.Cervical cancer is one of the few human cancers known to be directly caused by a viral infection, the human papillomavirus (HPV).
A small percentage of HPV strains lead to the development of cervical cancer, the second most prevalent cancer in women. More than 500,000 cases are diagnosed annually and it kills an estimated 275,000 women around the world every year.
Other types of the HPV virus cause genital and skin warts. The HPVs that convey a high risk of cervical cancer are contracted by up to an estimated 70 percent of sexually active women.
Professor Frazer and his colleague Dr Jian Zhou developed a vaccine against the HPV strains that cause cervical cancer nearly 18 years ago. They believed that a vaccine could be produced to prevent viral infection by enhancing the immune system’s ability to clear the virus.
Professor Frazer said it was at this stage the idea of creating a virus-like particle (VLP) was conceived.
The vaccines provide immunity against two to four strains of HPV, including types 16 and 18, most commonly associated with cervical cancers and frequently found in abnormal cervical samples.“It came from a chance observation that we made when we were working on how the virus worked,” he said.
“We showed that if you could express the proteins that make up the shell of the virus in the right way in the laboratory, they actually assembled themselves as VLPs and induced an immune response that would be likely to protect patients against infection.
“Giving these VLPs to patients tricks their immune systems into thinking they have been given the virus.
“The immune system learns to fight off that virus, and in doing so prevents the person being infected with the real virus.
“We knew that if we could get something that was like the virus, then it would most probably work as a vaccine against cervical cancer.”
In August, Professor Frazer was recognised for his outstanding work in developing the vaccine when he was awarded the 2005 CSIRO Eureka Prize for Leadership in Science.
Another hospital-based project has shown that overweight and obese people with no evidence of heart disease may still have heart muscle abnormalities.
These interim findings emerged last November after the five-year, $2 million Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases study by researchers at UQ’s National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Centre for Clinical Research Excellence.
The results from ongoing clinical trials are expected at the project's conclusion in 2007.
Professor Thomas Marwick, Principal Investigator of the UQ School of Medicine’s Cardiovascular Imaging Group at Princess Alexandra, said the program was the largest study of its kind in Queensland.
“We are focusing on metabolic diseases such as Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, obesity and metabolic syndrome,” Professor Marwick said.Professor Marwick and his team have developed a number of sensitive techniques for measuring the rate and magnitude of heart muscle thickening over the past seven years.
“We are looking at a range of diseases affecting overweight and obese people and the cardiovascular implications of those diseases.
“Everyone knows that weight and obesity can be contributors to developing coronary blockages.
“The observational data we have published to date goes a step further in showing that some people with a weight problem have minor changes in heart muscle function. The next step is to find what can be done about it.”
These parameters, including the velocity of contraction and relaxation, deformation measurements such as strain, and parameters of tissue reflectivity (which correspond to fibrosis or hardening of the muscle), are abnormal in the hearts of some overweight and obese patients, as well other metabolic diseases such as diabetes mellitus.
Professor Marwick said the study sought to unravel the mechanisms contributing to these abnormalities, as well as how to reverse them.
“The prevalence of obesity is increasing, as is the prevalence of heart disease and heart failure,” he said.Six UQ chief research investigators and a dozen clinical research staff began the project in 2003 with funding from UQ and the NHMRC.
If we can understand better how to treat this at an early stage before long standing damage is done to the heart, then the implications for society would be great.”
Professor Marwick said the program aimed to offer a multi-disciplinary approach to weight-related diseases so that it became a lifestyle intervention.
“At the outset of the program for subjects with diabetes, patients attend three times a week, are weighed regularly and required to meet with specialists such as exercise physiologists and dieticians,” he said.The growing problem of kidney disease will be tackled head on with the formation of a new Queensland-based research network, coordinated through UQ’s Clinical Trials Centre at the Princess Alexandra Hospital.
“Follow-up is then conducted either by phone or email once patients are on their own.
The big question is how effective the intervention approach will be in the long term after we stop seeing patients several times a week.”
The $1.2 million Australasian Kidney Trials Network (AKTN) is funded through the NHMRC Enabling Grants scheme.
Associate Professor Carmel Hawley, Chair of the Operations Secretariat of the AKTN, said it would draw together leading researchers in kidney disease from around Australia and New Zealand.
“Kidney disease is one of the biggest health issues facing Australia at the moment along with heart disease and diabetes,” Dr Hawley said.Other UQ researchers include Elaine Beller from the School of Population Health and Professors David Johnson and Wendy Hoy from the School of Medicine.
“This network will be focused on new and innovative clinical research to provide better treatments and outcomes for patients.”
Cervical cancer vaccine
Heart muscle abnormality study
Australasian Kidney Trials Network
