Aspirate to vaccinate!

Do we need to change vaccination protocols? Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada Thrombocytopenia has been consistently reported following the administration of adenoviral gene transfer vectors Adenovirus-induced thrombocytopenia is a potentially serious complication of gene therapy protocols using this type of vector. Understanding its mechanism may help the development of measures to prevent this adverse event. In this report, we have studied platelet-adenovirus interactions in vitro and in vivo after intravenous administration of adenovirus to mice. We show that adenovirus induces platelet activation and promotes the formation of platelet-leukocyte aggregates both in vitro and in vivo. Thrombocytopenia occurs between 5 and 24 hours following intravenous administration of adenovirus to mice Adenovirus activates platelets and induces rapid