| New type of vaccine protects mice against bird flu -
10-03-2006, 05:44 AM
Scientists in the US have genetically engineered a vaccine against bird flu and successfully tested it in mice. Unlike conventional vaccines prepared from viruses grown in eggs, the new vaccine is manufactured by a genetically engineered adenovirus.
Scientists deliberately avoided any process involving eggs which they surmised would be in short supplying during a bird flu pandemic. The new process is completely egg free and produces a protein component of the H5N1 virus called haemagglutinin subtype 5. Mice inoculated with the protein seem protected against H5N1 virus isolated from sick humans, mainly because the protein stimulates the cellular arm of the immune system. In a laboratory experiment, intramuscular inoculation worked better than intranasal. Importantly, vaccination by either route protected the mice against three different strains of H5N1. The authors say this type of vaccine could be a useful weapon against the genetic drift that characterises H5N1 viruses- but they are careful to point out that experiments in a handful of laboratory mice tell us nothing about the effects, particularly the saftey of these vaccines in people.
Lancet 2006 doi:10.1016/50140-6736(06)68076-B  | 
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