Beating two infections with one vaccine. (Immunology).Identifying key similarities between related bugs could enable researchers to coax some vaccines to do double duty. Immunity to one virus sometimes confers protection against a related microbe microbe /mi·crobe/ (mi´krob) a microorganism, especially a pathogenic one such as a bacterium, protozoan, or fungus.micro´bialmicro´bic mi·crobe n. . Such cross-protection is the case with cowpox cowpox, infectious disease of cows caused by a virus related to the virus of smallpox. Also called variola, it is characterized by pustular lesions on the teats and udder. and smallpox, and a vaccine currently in use for Japanese encephalitis Japanese Encephalitis Definition Japanese encephalitis is an infection of the brain caused by a virus. The virus is transmitted to humans by mosquitoes. protects some animals against the closely related West Nile virus West Nile virus, microorganism and the infection resulting from it, which typically produces no symptoms or a flulike condition. The virus is a flavivirus and is related to a number of viruses that cause encephalitis. . Cross-protection could occur in part because related viruses share many molecular parts that trigger immune cells to attack, says Anne S. De Groot of Brown University and the company EpiVax, both in Providence, R.I. De Groot and her colleagues compared the genomes of a Japanese encephalitis virus and a strain of West Nile virus that killed several people in New York in 1999. The researchers found that the viruses share at least 300 parts, or epitopes. This suggests that an immune cell primed to attack an epitope epitope: see immunity. in one virus would respond to the other virus, as well. Identifying other pairs of pathogens with many cross-reactive epitopes may reveal more double-duty vaccines, the researchers say. --B.H. |
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