Reasonable Rascal
03-07-02, 19:29
From the Harvard ProMed List.
-------------------------------------
Scientists have developed [an experimental] vaccine for the deadly West Nile virus (WNV). It is a hybrid vaccine made up of a combination of weakened forms of the viruses that cause West Nile fever and dengue fever. The vaccine is formed by removing key genes
from dengue virus and replacing them with WNV genes.
Researchers will begin testing the vaccine in monkeys next month and hope to begin human trials in late 2002. The new vaccine has been
developed by a team from the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the Walter Reed Army Institute of
Research. The hybrid vaccine consists mostly of dengue virus, which does not target the central nervous system. Therefore, it does not infect the brain. In laboratory tests, the researchers found that the WNV genes stimulated a powerful immune response in mice who were given just one shot of the vaccine. One of the dengue viruses used by the researchers to construct the genetic backbone of this hybrid virus had already been proven safe in people.
The research is published in the March 5 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, Vol. 99, Issue 5, 3036-3041, 5 Mar 2002:
<http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/short/99/5/3036>].
-------------------------------------
Scientists have developed [an experimental] vaccine for the deadly West Nile virus (WNV). It is a hybrid vaccine made up of a combination of weakened forms of the viruses that cause West Nile fever and dengue fever. The vaccine is formed by removing key genes
from dengue virus and replacing them with WNV genes.
Researchers will begin testing the vaccine in monkeys next month and hope to begin human trials in late 2002. The new vaccine has been
developed by a team from the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the Walter Reed Army Institute of
Research. The hybrid vaccine consists mostly of dengue virus, which does not target the central nervous system. Therefore, it does not infect the brain. In laboratory tests, the researchers found that the WNV genes stimulated a powerful immune response in mice who were given just one shot of the vaccine. One of the dengue viruses used by the researchers to construct the genetic backbone of this hybrid virus had already been proven safe in people.
The research is published in the March 5 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, Vol. 99, Issue 5, 3036-3041, 5 Mar 2002:
<http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/short/99/5/3036>].