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U.S. Gives Money for Smallpox Vaccine Development
An Arizona State University researcher has received a $1 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for the development of a post-exposure smallpox vaccine, Arizona State said in a recent press release (see GSN, June 13). Bertram Jacobs, a virologist at the Arizona State and the Biodesign Institute, has discovered a gene that allows pox viruses to hide themselves from immune systems, a trait which allows the virus to spread. He is working on a vaccine that turns off the gene that allows the virus to remain hidden. The vaccine is effective post-exposure because of the number of viruses in the body. The more viruses the immune system can identify, the more viruses it can eliminate. Jacobs said there is “anecdotal evidence” that vaccination is effective if taken within four days of exposure. He is currently testing the vaccine in mice. “We want to look at all of our mutants and see which ones work best in this post-exposure prophylaxis,” Jacobs said. These early results have indicated that the vaccine improve resistance to the disease as well as preventing it. “If you give them a million particles, they don’t even get sick – the animals stay healthy,” he said. “The animals stay healthy. The body reacts and it fights off both the mutant, and also the normal virus that normally would hide itself. The more you put in, the more likely it is for the immune system to say ‘Hey, wait a minute. There is something going on here. I need to start fighting a virus infection.’ and so it fights the mutant virus and a normal pathogenic virus as well.” Jacobs believes his method of turning the smallpox vaccine against itself can also help fight the HIV virus (Arizona State release, May 26).
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