Researchers Tout Smallpox Vaccine

An experimental nasal vaccine has been shown to safeguard mice against exposure to a dose of smallpox 77 times stronger than the amount needed to kill test animals, the company developing the treatment said yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 11).

By using deactivated samples of vaccinia virus, the vaccine provides strong protection against smallpox without any of the side effects associated with current smallpox vaccines containing live virus samples, researchers at the University of Michigan and NanoBio Corp. found.

“The safety and speed of our nasally delivered vaccine would provide the necessary protection to the public in the event of a bioterrorist attack or a natural outbreak of a related orthopoxvirus infection such as monkeypox,” NanoBio chief James Baker Jr. said in a statement

The vaccine is administered through the nasal mucosa, enabling the immune system to quickly develop protection where the airborne virus first enters the body (NanoBio Corp. release, Feb. 26).

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