Novel Technology: Developing a “protecting virus”

British researchers have developed a novel vaccine that can be used to fight off various strains of the influenza virus, including future pandemic strains. That at least is what the University of Warwick team claim in its animal study.

Calling this the “protecting virus”, the scientists stripped an influenza virus of 80% of the genetic material on one of its eirth RNA segments. Deleting these fragments disable the virus from reproducing itself. However, when an influenza virus invades the body, the protecting viral fragments can recombine with the invading virus and render it harmless but able to quickly reproduce. So rapid is the resulting reproduction of this recombinant that it will crowd out the invader and trigger an immune response from the body.

This fast reproduction rate – spurred by the new flu infection – means that the new invading influenza is effectively crowded out.

This vastly slows the progress of the new infection, prevents flu symptoms, and gives the body time to develop an immune response to the harmful new invader.

Why it may work?

Traditional vaccination methods trigger the body’s immune system to produce enough white blood cells that attach to viral surfaces and kill the virus. Although this method has worked against other viral diseases like smallpox, polio and measles, it’s less effective against influenza because the viral coat is constantly mutating with each strain. Hence the reason why vaccines are only effective against a certain flu strain but totally effective against emerging strains.

The new method of using a “protecting virus” may work for all types of influenza viral strains because it does not target the coat, unlike traditional vaccines. Instead it disrupts the invading virus’ genetic infectious ability.

One could give it as a preventive measure without the need to tailor it to a particular flu strain or mutation. This has obvious benefits when dealing with the sudden outbreak of a major epidemic, as one would not need to know the exact make up of the new strain before deploying the protecting virus making it much more useful than vaccines, which are effective only against particular existing strains of virus.

The “protecting virus” also offers instant and longer-lasting protection.

Experiments so far show that a single dose of protecting virus can be given 6 weeks before an infection with flu virus and be effective. This could also have a substantial advantage over anti-viral drugs that only give less than 24-hour protection.

The researchers have filed a patent on the “protecting virus” and are looking for funding for human clinical trials. Hopefully they find money soon enough.

[Source: Innovations Report]

Tags: flu vaccines, Pandemic flu, Science, viral diseases, antiviral research, protecting virus