DNA-Based Vaccine Against Avian Flu

Filed in archive Drugs, Vaccines and Therapeutics on October 17, 2005

In the current issue of Nature, researchers call for more avian flu drugs and scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison report of an avian flu virus strain that was highly resistant to Tamiflu or oseltamivir. Tamiflu is currently the drug that officials plan to use as first line of defense in case the avian flu breaks into a full-blown epidemic.

As it is, there is already a foreseen shortage of the drug, even though some governments (who can afford it) are stockpiling it. Yoshihiro Kawaoka, an international authority on influenza and the Nature paper's lead author said that currently available flu-fighting drugs (oseltamivir, adamantine-derivatives, zanamivir) are by no means a replacement or alternative to a vaccine.

The challenge is not only to develop the vaccine, but to make it in vast amounts and more importantly, in time to prevent an outbreak. A commentary in BusinessWeek mentions that

"So far, the U.S. Health & Human Services Department (HHS) has awarded $100 million to Sanofi to make a vaccine against avian flu using eggs and $97 million to develop cell-culture production facilities."

So we'll probably have enough. But will we have them on time? Dr. John Beadle, chief medical officer of PowderMed Ltd., says vaccine constructed from DNA is the answer. Trials are set for next year, and if it's proven that it works, Beadle claims his company could make vaccine enough for the country's needs in just six weeks. University of Rochester professor Dr. John Jay Treanor, who tests flu vaccines, says:

"There is no need to handle live viruses, and there are no complicated purification steps. Instead, the vaccine is largely comprised of a few genes from the virus. Once in the body, the genes tell cells to make viral proteins, which stimulate an immune response."

Even the delivery of the vaccine have already been figured out: "Tiny gold particles are coated with vaccine and shot into the skin at supersonic speeds."

Very promising , indeed. According to Nature's bird flu "blog", H5N1 has arrived in Romania last week. If US won't listen, I hope someone in Europe does because I'm getting into a panic mode over here. Romania is not exactly that far anymore from where I'm typing this entry.

Photo Credit: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4734265.stm