American scientists immunized African green monkeys with an experimental injection about three to seven days before exposure to a strain of Nipah virus.
Results published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) showed that all vaccinated monkeys were protected from the deadly disease, while 67% of the animals were vaccinated for three days. before exposure to the virus is partially protected but still alive.
Thomas W. Geisbert, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, of the Medical Branch of Varsity, wrote: in the article.
“These studies are an encouraging first step in showing the potential safety and effectiveness of this vaccine in the event of an outbreak. Future studies are needed to determine the minimum dose. needed to be effective, as well as to determine the durability of immune responses induced by vaccines,” he added.
There is currently no approved vaccine for humans. While some vaccines have shown promise in protecting animals against deadly Nipah virus disease, most studies have evaluated protection one month after vaccination. .
However, “to prevent and control outbreaks, there is a need for vaccines that can rapidly provide protection for days, not months,” Geisbert said.
At least eight samples are currently being tested on animals, including one made by the University of Oxford, the Daily Mail reports.
This new virus uses a virus from the same family as rabies that has been modified to not cause symptoms. It acts as a means of delivering harmless proteins to the cells.
Once inside, the cells display the protein on their surface, and the immune system realizes it doesn’t belong. This triggers an immune response, in which antibodies and T cells are released. The body then remembers this process so it knows how to deal with the real Nipah virus in the future, the report said.
So far, “fruit bats” have only been identified as a reservoir for the Nipah virus that can transmit diseases to other animals such as pigs, dogs, cats and goats.
Outbreaks of the Nipah virus are rare, with only about 700 cases reported since the virus was first detected in Malaysia in 1999.
However, the Nipah virus is considered a “public health concern because it infects a wide range of animals and causes serious illness and death in humans,” according to the WHO.
The global health agency lists Nipah along with other dangerous, deadly diseases such as Ebola, Lassa fever, Zika, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever and Rift Valley fever.
Source: IANS
