Cold chain in a hot climate

Abstract

: We monitored the temperatures of batches of vaccine during transport and storage from a national warehouse to five Northern Territory vaccination clinics. Electronic temperature monitors were placed with vaccines, and were programmed to record the temperature every 30 minutes for up to three months. A diary was attached to each vaccine batch to record each change in location. The temperature recordings covered 8369 hours. There were regular temperature deviations outside the recommended range. In the hot climate of the Northern Territory, freezing is the greatest threat to vaccine potency. Recommendations from the study include: routine use of cold chain indicators, increased vaccine turnover and storage of vaccines within an operational temperature range of 4 to 8°C. Research is needed to investigate the efficacy of heat‐stable vaccines when stored at ambient temperatures and in air‐conditioned environments.

Reassessment of an Innovative Insulin Analogue Excludes Protracted Action yet Highlights the Distinction between External and Internal Diselenide Bridges

“…Long‐acting insulin analogues are a mainstay in the treatment of diabetes mellitus (DM), whose global prevalence is approaching pandemic status . The limited shelf life of available insulins above room temperature necessitates a complex and costly cold chain of distribution and storage, a restriction that poses a major challenge in global health …”

Freezing temperatures in the vaccine cold chain: A systematic literature review

“…Still, the findings from this study may not be generalized for all subcategories of analysis. For instance, we were only able to find two transport studies in developed countries, making it difficult to draw conclusions about vaccine temperature exposure under that particular scenario [9,10].…”

Design of an Active Ultrastable Single-chain Insulin Analog

“…Synthesis of Single-chain Insulin Analog-SCI-57 was synthesized by native chemical ligation (46) of three peptides: segment I (B1-B6; polypeptide residues 1-6), segment II (B7-A6; polypeptide residues 7-42), and segment III (A7-A21; polypeptide residues [43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57]. Segments III and II were first ligated; their product was then ligated to segment I to yield the reduced and unfolded 57-residue polypeptide.…”

“…Because degradation rates of insulin analogs correlate inversely with their relative stabilities (50,51) and are further accelerated by conformational fluctuations (51), SCI-57 may represent a class of ultrastable analogs whose pharmaceutical formulation may enhance the safety and efficacy of insulin replacement therapy (52). We thus envisage that ultrastable single-chain formulations, designed in accord with the principles exemplified here, could advance the treatment of diabetes mellitus in the developing world (49,53). (54) was effected by interaction of the S-sulfonated derivative of the A-chain analog (30 mg) and B-chain analog (15 mg) in 10 ml of 0.1 M glycine buffer (pH 10.6) in the presence of dithiothreitol (5.2 mg) as described (7,55).…”