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New Vaccine Prevents Chikungunya in Monkeys, Mice: Study

by Thilaka Ravi on January 29, 2010 at 3:32 PM Chikungunya News

An experimental vaccine provided 100 percent protection against the mosquito-borne chikungunya virus in primates and mice, offering hope it will work for humans too, according to a study.

New Vaccine Prevents Chikungunya in Monkeys, Mice: Study

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There is no known vaccine or treatment for the disease, which has infected millions of people in Africa and Asia and can cause debilitating pain and, in extreme cases, death.

Researchers say human trials will start within a year or two, and that the discoveries made could lead to vaccines for diseases stemming from other so-called alphaviruses, such as various deadly strains of equine encephalitis, and the Ross River virus.

The discovery comes at a time when global travel and trade, along with climate change, are expanding the habitats of the mosquitos that carry these pathogens.

Scientists led by Gary Nagel, Director of the Vaccine Research Center at the US National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland identified the proteins that give rise to chikungunya.

In laboratory experiments, they created a safe variant of these virus-like particles and immunised rhesus macaques, waiting 15 weeks before exposing the animals to the disease. All of the monkeys survived.

In a second set of experiments, the researchers injected a serum containing the antibodies the monkeys had developed into genetically-modified mice that essentially had no immune system.

The rodents were completely protected from what would have otherwise been a deadly dose of the virus.

"The mouse study proves that it is the antibody response that is responsible for the protection that we see in the monkeys," Nagel told AFP by phone.

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New Vaccine Prevents Chikungunya in Monkeys, Mice: Study

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