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Auto-vaccine in case of CF

Question
My daughter (36) is a CF patient and we are urgently looking for new/ additional /accompanying therapies. The up-to now done antibiotic therapies do practically have no effect anymore, as multiresistant germs have colonized the lung.
Is there the possibility to produce directly/ specifically an auto-vaccine out of these germs?
If yes, who can take these germs respectively can isolate them? In the internet I could only find in the laboratories sample taking and production of auto-vaccines out of stool or urine. Which I consider to be too unspecific at the moment in case of my daughter. I ask for advice and support, as the situation is really critical by now.
Answer
Hello,
your questions aims at further therapeutical options in case of multiresistant germs with CF. Indeed, we can treat for a very long time period severe exacerbations (acute deteriorations concerning the illness) with i.v., oral and/or inhalative antibiotic therapeutics. These are in here very effective. The effect is mostly also there, even if we do not look at the antibiogram (a report concerning a microbiological recommendation, which antibiotic drug should have a good effect concering the detected germ). The more advanced the illness is, the less the patients have the feeling, that an i.v. antibiotic therapy can cause a substantial improvement of their clinical health. We observe this every day in our hospital. Even if we are sure, that we can lower the bacterial load substantially with our antibiotic therapies, what should in the end lead to an improvement, the effects are not as great as they used to be when the illness is progressing. This is mostly not due to the resistant germs, but more due to large structural damages in the lung. On the other side, it is of course correct, that we can only use a few or even only one microbiologically tested sensible antibiotic drug in case of some patients with very resistant germs and an acute exacerbation. As mentioned above, this does not mean necessarily, that the other antibiotic drugs would not lead to an improvement. Your question about new therapeutic options, independent of antibiotics, is however very justified with the background of lacking therapeutic options.
Auto-vaccines are a field of research, that has been discovered even before the antibiotics, which has shown a positive anti-inflammatory effect at different illnesses. A literature research concerning CF and auto-vaccine unfortunately did not reveal any study, that had been performed in this field of research. We have performed a clinical investigation in the field of allergic asthma bronchiale concerning auto-vaccine (Rose MA et al. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2011). Here we could show at least a good security and tolerance. Other, mostly studies from Eastern Europe, show an anti-inflammatory effect at several diseases. An older German study shows, that auto-vaccines release their effect via a change of the inflammatory environment, as they suppress pro-inflammatory signals (proteins) effectively (Rusch V. et al, Arzneimittelforschung 2001). This could for sure also be helpful in CF. I doubt, however, that this will be a helpful therapeutic option in case of very advanced disease.
With my best wishes for you and your daughter,
Olaf Eickmeier
06.05.2015