Ebola Virus Vaccine 80 Percent Effective In Mice: Study
A new Ebola virus vaccine is 80 percent effective in mice, Arizona researchers announced this week.
Charles Arntzen, a researcher at the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University, reported that his team has found a vaccine that fuses tobacco plants with an antibody, creating a stable vaccine. None of the previous vaccine candidates were able to withstand the long-term storage needed in case of an attack.
"All of these existing vaccine candidates are genetically modified live viruses," Arntzen said in a news release. "If you've got something that you're going to have to keep at liquid nitrogen temperatures for years at a time, in hopes that there will never be an outbreak, it makes it impractical. "
The rare African virus overwhelms the immune system, causing multiple organ failures and eventually killing 90 percent of its victims.
The UN's World Health Organization (WHO) reports that about 1,850 cases of Ebola have occured since 1976, with some 1,200 deaths.
Arntzen's team took a protein from the virus and joined it with an antibody that recognizes it and produced an immune complex in tobacco plants.
They injected it into the mice along with another chemical called PIC. Eight in 10 mice survived an Ebola infection. All those who were infected that did not receive the vaccine died.
Arntzen said more research is needed to prove the vaccine's effectiveness and safety in humans, but that the vaccine could potentially be stockpiled in case of a bioterrorism attack on the U.S.
The study appeared Dec. 5 online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
http://www.thirdage.com/news/ebola-virus-vaccine-80-percent-effective-in-mice-study_12-07-2011
Charles Arntzen, a researcher at the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University, reported that his team has found a vaccine that fuses tobacco plants with an antibody, creating a stable vaccine. None of the previous vaccine candidates were able to withstand the long-term storage needed in case of an attack.
"All of these existing vaccine candidates are genetically modified live viruses," Arntzen said in a news release. "If you've got something that you're going to have to keep at liquid nitrogen temperatures for years at a time, in hopes that there will never be an outbreak, it makes it impractical. "
The rare African virus overwhelms the immune system, causing multiple organ failures and eventually killing 90 percent of its victims.
The UN's World Health Organization (WHO) reports that about 1,850 cases of Ebola have occured since 1976, with some 1,200 deaths.
Arntzen's team took a protein from the virus and joined it with an antibody that recognizes it and produced an immune complex in tobacco plants.
They injected it into the mice along with another chemical called PIC. Eight in 10 mice survived an Ebola infection. All those who were infected that did not receive the vaccine died.
Arntzen said more research is needed to prove the vaccine's effectiveness and safety in humans, but that the vaccine could potentially be stockpiled in case of a bioterrorism attack on the U.S.
The study appeared Dec. 5 online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
http://www.thirdage.com/news/ebola-virus-vaccine-80-percent-effective-in-mice-study_12-07-2011
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