[Anti-doping Activities by Hospital Pharmacists].

With the hosting of the Tokyo Olympics, interest in anti-doping (AD) has increased, and at the same time, sports pharmacists (SPs) are expected to play active roles. However, despite the fact that it has been more than 10 years since the SP certification system was launched, the existence and roles of SPs are not well recognized by sports officials, and many SPs feel that there is no place or way for them to contribute. In my case, as a staff member of the federation, I have supported competitions as a referee and secretariat, so I have had opportunities to conduct AD activities such as seminars for athletes and coaches, and to respond to inquiries. Also, in my work as a hospital pharmacist, I have had opportunities to respond to informal inquiries about AD measures from hospital staff. In both cases, I think it was very important to first make people aware of the existence of SPs.The current problem is that it is sometimes difficult for the federation's staff to respond promptly, which puts a burden on their normal work. Therefore, it is important to have pharmacists who are close to the athletes and can provide health consultations on a daily basis in order to share correct information, educate them about AD measures, and help manage their health.

The efficacy of inactivated West Nile vaccine (WN-VAX) in mice and monkeys.

BACKGROUND: West Nile virus (WNV) belonging to the genus Flavivirus of the family Flaviviridae causes nervous system disorder in humans, horses and birds. Licensed WNV vaccines are available for use in horses but not for humans. We previously developed an inactivated West Nile virus vaccine (WN-VAX) using a seed virus from West Nile virus (WNV NY99) that was originally isolated in New York City in 1999. In this study, we report the immunogenicity of WN-VAX in both mice and non-human primates. FINDINGS: The WN-VAX immunized mice showed protection against lethal infection with WNV NY99. The challenge test performed on mice passively immunized with serum from other mice that were previously immunized with WN-VAX confirmed that the neutralizing antibody titers of more than 1log10 protected the passively immunized mice from WNV lethal infection. Furthermore, monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) immunized three times with 2.5 µg, 5 µg or 10 µg/dose of WN-VAX exhibited neutralizing antibodies in their sera with titers of more than 2log10 after the second immunization. CONCLUSIONS: The WN-VAX was protective in mice both by active and passive immunizations and was immunogenic in monkeys. These results suggest that the vaccine developed in this study may be a potential WNV vaccine candidate for human use.

Development and evaluation of a formalin-inactivated West Nile Virus vaccine (WN-VAX) for a human vaccine candidate.

A formalin-inactivated West Nile Virus (WNV) vaccine (WN-VAX) derived from the WNV-NY99 strain was tested for its safety, efficacy, dilution limit for complete protection, and cross-neutralization. Safety tests performed with experimental animals, bacteria, or cultured cell lines showed no evidence of short- or long-term adverse effects. WN-VAX also protected 100% of 4-week-old mice against a lethal challenge from the WNV-NY99 strain after two doses of intraperitoneal inoculation-even when the vaccine was diluted to 3.2ng/dose. Moreover, very limited cross-neutralization activity against Japanese encephalitis virus, Dengue virus, Murray Valley encephalitis virus, Yellow fever virus or St. Louis encephalitis virus was observed. Therefore, the WN-VAX satisfies the requirements for human trials planned to be done in Japan.