| Publications :: | Assistant
Professor of Pediatrics Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases 
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the leading cause of pneumonias
of infants and children in the world. Over 100,000 infants are hospitalized
for RSV yearly in the USA. About 1% of infants hospitalized with RSV
die of their disease. There is no vaccine for this infection and no
effective therapy. Dr. John DeVincenzo has dedicated his career to
studying this virus, and to developing prevention and treatment strategies
for this common pediatric infection. Dr. DeVincenzo has just completed
a four-year effort in developing, standardizing and validating a new
methodology to measure the presence and quantity of RSV in children.
This new assay will be instrumental in the design and implementation
of future clinical trials of RSV therapies and studies of disease
pathogenesis. Dr. DeVincenzo’s research has had an impact on children’s
health in several ways. First, with CFRC support, Dr. DeVincenzo has for the first time established the relationship between disease
severity and RSV quantity. This simple relationship is crucial, as
it has helped modify the widely held belief that RSV disease is related
mainly to the immune response and not to the virus itself. Through
his research establishing this relationship between RSV quantity and
disease severity, the prospect of treating disease by eliminating
the virus through antiviral compounds becomes theoretically possible.
Dr. DeVincenzo has since helped lead five biotechnology companies
to direct efforts to develop RSV therapeutic antiviral programs. In
addition, he has also been influential through this research in redirecting
a current RSV antiviral program to target previously healthy children
who suffer from this disease. |
El Saleeby CM, Somes GW, DeVincenzo JP, Gaur A. Risk factors for severe respiratory syncytial virus disease in children with cancer: The importance of lymphopenia and young age. Pediatrics 2008; 121(2):235-243 DeVincenzo JP, Cehelsky JE, Meyers R, Alvarez , Elbashir S, Harborth J, Toudjarska I, Nechev L, Murugaiah M, Vaishnaw AK. Evaluation of the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of ALN-RSV01, a novel RNAi antiviral therapeutic directed against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) Antiviral Res 2008; 77(3): 225-231. Thompson T, Harrison L, Aitken J, El-Saleeby C, DeVincenzo JP. In vitro cytokine and chemokine concentrations induced by clinical isolates of RSV collected from infants with different disease severities. J Clin Virol (submitted) El Saleeby CM, Bush AJ, Harrison LM, Aitken JA, DeVincenzo JP. Respiratory syncytial virus load, viral dynamics and disease severity in previously healthy naturally infected children. Nature Medicine (submitted) DeVincenzo JP. Genetic influences on respiratory syncytial virus disease severity. Clin Micro Reviews (invited review article, manuscript in preparation) |