MDCK Cells in Production of Influenza Vaccine

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Vaccination is one of the best ways to avoid the infection and to stay healthy and, in many cases, alive. The problem of influenza made people think about the protection from this virus which brings deaths to people and is very dangerous if not to endeavor to avoid it. One of the main ways to protect people from the influenza virus is vaccination. This way of protection is legal and is practiced all over the world, but not all people know how these vaccines are produced and that they may not only protect people from influenza but also provide harmful effects, one of which causes maybe even death.

The mentioned negative effect of the influenza vaccine is provoked by the special technology, according to which the flu vaccines are made. Cells are the main components of the flu vaccine, and there are a lot of types of such cells, according to which different types of vaccines are created. One of the main ways to create the flu vaccine in the United States of America remains the production of the vaccine from the embryonated chicken eggs (Liu, et al, 2009). This technology is rather effective, but the increase of the cases of flu epidemics requires the increase of the vaccine production what is rather difficult to do taking into consideration the limitation of the raw materials. This makes scientists and vaccine manufacturers search for alternative ways of vaccine production.

The Madin Darby Canine Kidney (MDCK) is one of the alternative cell lines which were discovered in 1958. MDCK (CCL 34), Vero, MRC-5, WI-38, and FRhL-2 cells are the types of cells that are used for vaccine production in the United States now. The article by Liu et al introduces the examples of materials and processes of the new innovative technology for the flu vaccine creation. The viruses which are aimed to be contested in the experiment are A/Sydney/05/97, A/Beijing/262/95, B/Harbin/7/94, A/Panama/2007/99, A/New Caledonia/20/99, B/Jilin/20/2003, A/Hiroshima/52/05, B/Malaysia/2506/04, A/Vietnam/1203/2004, A/Teax/36/91, B/Hong Kong/220/01 and B/Victoria/504/2000 (Liu, et al, 2009). The current study showed that MDCK cells are the most appropriate raw material for live attenuated influenza vaccine production and maybe a good alternative to the embryonated chicken eggs.

The experiments and investigations which were reflected in the article “Use of MDCK cells for production of live attenuated influenza vaccine” by Liu et al is a good start for the researchers in vaccine manufacturing and the investigation of the other ways and technologies. The first step is the most difficult, as the understanding of the problem and its further decision is much easier to provide.

The cell production of the influenza vaccines is rather effective, but there are still some cases when everything goes wrong and this vaccine becomes the cause of health problems and even death. There is the opinion that the reason for such cases is that the vaccines are produced from cells, the others insist that the vaccine is not the cause of the problems. To consider these opinions it is better to dwell upon the real situation where real people were involved and these people became the victims of the vaccination from influenza.

The question of whether the influenza vaccination is safe appeared after some cases appeared when people had either great problems with health or died after influenza vaccination. Government and medical institutions began to check the information and provide some investigations to prove that the causes of the problems were not caused by vaccines, but people, when frightened, are difficult to be persuaded.

The described situation took place in Israel when four people died after the influenza vaccination in October 2006. After the cases emerged, the vaccination campaign was stopped till the ascertainment of the facts. The investigations and tests showed that the vaccine could not be the reason for the death and the results of these investigations were introduced, according to which, the death rates from the influenza vaccine within 7 days ranged from 0.01 to 0.02, and 0.09 – 0.1 at 30 days. The investigations showed that the possibility of the deaths, caused by vaccination, was very low and the immunization of the Israel population continued, but still the possibility was, that is why the further vaccination was reduced as people refused to be vaccinated (Kokia, 2007).

Mentioned examples are not so numerous, but they still exist. Knowing about such cases, people begin to question the properties of the vaccines and refuse vaccination that can lead to epidemics, where even people, who were vaccinated, can die from flu complications. The distrust in medicine is the other reason why people refuse immunization and the growing rate of deaths in the country support people’s idea, as they are not informed whether the vaccination was implemented on those people or not.

The article by Benedict Carton (2003) introduces the examples when people were infected by the other types of viruses, which is why the influenza vaccination was not effective. It is a proven fact that there are a lot of types of vaccines and that every year newer and newer vaccines should be developed in order to reduce the risk of infection to a minimum. The vaccine which kills this or that type of virus can easily create some health problems in the combination with the other type of flu virus as the vaccinations are created from the cells, and it is never possible to predict the further consequences in the genetics, that is why some people believe that flu vaccines can lead to death (Armstrong, et al, 2004). Kathleen M. Neuzil and Rick A. Bright (2009) in their article insist that vaccine from influenza does to give 100% guarantee to avoid the facts of being infected, but they give strong immune support and the consequences of the infection are much better to bear than without vaccination (Neuzil & Bright, 2009).

Fireman, B, et al (2009) in their article provided the investigation, according to which older people, even after the vaccine, had a higher rate of deaths during the period of the epidemics. The arguments were given that vaccines did not only fail to protect people but also were the reasons for their deaths. The investigations showed that the vaccine was not to the point. Old people had a lot of other health problems and such as heart, diabetes, and other problems which come to people with the age. The authors of the article managed to prove that the increased rate of deaths of old people during the flu epidemics is not connected with the vaccination. Moreover, vaccination is not the reason for the health problems.

It is important to mention that there is not so much information about the causes of deaths, where the flu vaccines were the reasons for the health problems and death, and even if the suspicions were about the cases, the medical institutions provided a lot of investigations and researches and proved that vaccine was not the reason. The actions of the health department are easy to understand, as even if there could be at least 30-40% of the possibility that the deaths were provoked by the vaccines, people would refuse to be vaccinated and the possibility of the epidemic could emerge. The Health Department is responsible for the vaccines which are promoted to the markets and they are carefully checked before entering the sales, so the cases of death reactions to the vaccine are so rare that they even cannot be distinguished.

There are a lot of cases when vaccines provoked health problems, but they are not really the causes as people could have had the health problems before and the vaccines just opened the doors to the disease, which had absolutely alien reasons. So, in conclusion, it may be said that the new technologies, where vaccines are created on the basis of cells, are much more productive than those which are created out of egg embryos as the time limits are different. Cell vaccine production is faster what is very important in the cases when the virus has already started its work and the faster the vaccine will be created the faster it will be able to give its results. On the other hand, the cell-produced vaccines may come into the contest with the organism and the consequences may be unpredictable.

Reference List

Armstrong, B. G., et al. (2004). “Effect of influenza vaccination on excess deaths occurring during periods of high circulation of influenza: cohort study in elderly people.” BMJ. Vol. 329, no. 7467.

Carton, B. (2003). “The Forgotten Compass of Death: Apocalypse Then and Now in the Social History of South Africa.” Journal of Social History. Vol. 37, no. 1.

Fireman, B, et al. (2009). “Influenza Vaccination and Mortality: Differentiating Vaccine Effects From Bias.” American Journal of Epidemiology. Vol.170, no. 5, pp. 650-656.

Kokia, E. S., et al. (2007). “Deaths following influenza vaccination—background mortality or causal connection?” Vaccine. Vol. 25, no. 51, pp. 8557-8561.

Liu J, et al. (2009). Use of MDCK cells for production of live attenuated influenza vaccine. Vaccine.

Neuzil, k. M. & Bright, R. A. (2009) “Influenza Vaccine Manufacture: Keeping Up with Change.” The Journal of Infectious Diseases. Vol. 200, no. 6, pp. 835-837.

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MDCK Cells in Production of Influenza Vaccine

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