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West Nile Vaccine on the Way?

Posted on: Monday, 17 April 2006, 12:00 CDT

Researchers from the University of Massachusetts said Monday they have made headway on a vaccine against West Nile virus.

The ChimeriVax-West Nile Now effort between the university and vaccine firm Acambis Inc. has produced a recombinant vaccine against West Nile virus that researchers say quickly produced a strong immune response with a single dose in both animal models and in a phase 1 human clinical trial.

There is currently no human vaccine to protect against West Nile virus, with preventative efforts aimed at reducing exposure to infected mosquitoes.

The potential vaccine, ChimeriVax, uses a live, attenuated yellow fever vaccine to create chimeric viruses.

In making the vaccine, scientists took out specific genes from the yellow fever virus vaccine that are known to induce immunity to this virus in humans, and replaced them with the corresponding genes of the West Nile virus.

In an 80-patient study, researchers said they saw no notable difference in the incidence of systemic reactions between patients getting the ChimeriVax-West Nile vaccine and those receiving placebo.

Since first appearing in the United States in 1999, more than 19,000 cases of West Nile virus have been reported, with 750 deaths, researchers said.

A report on the study, A live, attenuated recombinant vaccine against West Nile virus, appears in the April 14 early edition online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Source: United Press International

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