Science Saturday: Adversomics of Vaccines

I’ve long wondered when mainstream medicine will develop the sophistication to screen children for their likelihood to experience an “adverse event” after vaccination.  An adverse event can be as simple as a fever,  or more severe, like idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, of which pertussis vaccine is the leading cause for toddlers.   We’d all like to forget that this happens, and never think this will happen to our child.  But it does happen to someones child, and can be life altering.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if  screenings were developed so that only those who are at high risk of negative side effects could at least be aware and weigh the potential risk to benefit ratio.

The good news, through another awesome biomedical blogger, I learned that scientists have begun to study this.  “Adversomics” (catchy name, huh?) is the study of how genetics can impact reactions to a vaccine.  You can read a great paper here:  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2843136/  The study analyzed 1,442 SNP’s  and found that with the smallpox vaccine, there were three genes, whose gene variants were significantly associated with adverse reactions to the small pox vaccine.  Interestingly, one of those gene variants is the MTHFR gene.  I’ll be blogging more about that gene next week, it’s suspected role in autism, and why it’s of particular interest to me,

Three genes, huh?  Hey, we’re getting somewhere, right?

And then I realized that the study was published in 2008.  Five years ago, (and two months after Hannah was born).  Small pox isn’t even administered to the general public.  That makes it simpler to study, but why not study the same thing on a vaccine that kids every day are taking?  Some times the slow pace of research can be maddening.  On a day like today, when I’m weary, it can reduce me to tears.    The lack of long term safety data on vaccines, and studies of health parameters in vaccinated versus un-vaccinated children is dismaying to me.

I’m grateful for the foundations that medical research is laying- I just wish it could move faster on some of the issues to seem urgent these days.