Intranasal SARS vaccine protects monkeys
Jun 25, 2004 (CIDRAP News) – One dose of an experimental intranasal vaccine protected monkeys from the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) virus in a study reported this week, raising hope for a vaccine that could quickly protect healthcare workers in a SARS outbreak.
African green monkeys that received the spray vaccine showed no viral replication after they were exposed to the SARS virus, whereas the virus reproduced in unvaccinated monkeys, according to the report in The Lancet. The study was conducted by Alexander Bukreyev, PhD, Peter Collins, PhD, and colleagues at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
"This study shows that delivering the vaccine directly into the respiratory tract can effectively protect primates from SARS," said Brian R. Murphy, MD, a coauthor of the study, in an NIAID news release. Murphy is co-chief of the NIAID Laboratory of Infectious Diseases.
"With more research, we hope to develop a vaccine based on this approach that could be used to rapidly immunize first responders and other medical personnel, helping them control a potential outbreak," Murphy added.
The researchers created the vaccine by combining a piece of the SARS virus with a weakened version of human parainfluenza virus type 3 (HPIV3), which in its natural form causes respiratory diseases in young children, the NIAID said. The researchers altered the weakened virus, called BHPIV3, by adding a gene for the SARS spike protein, which protrudes from the surface of the SARS virus and enables it to attach to human cells. Using BHPIV3 made it possible to introduce the SARS spike protein directly into the respiratory tract, the NIAID said.
Four monkeys received a nasal spray containing BHPIV3 with the SARS spike protein gene (BHPIV3/SARS-S), while four other monkeys received a version of BHPIV3 containing a harmless gene in place of the SARS gene, according to the NIAID. The monkeys that received the test vaccine developed neutralizing antibodies against the SARS virus, while the control group did not.
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