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Chikungunya Vaccine Shows Promise
January 29, 2010

A girl suffering from chikugunya receiving treatment in Central Kalimantan earlier this month. (Antara Photo) A girl suffering from chikugunya receiving treatment in Central Kalimantan earlier this month. (Antara Photo)
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An experimental vaccine that has been shown to provide 100 percent protection against the mosquito-borne chikungunya virus in primates and mice is offering hope it will work for humans too, a new study has found.

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.

Chikungunya re-emerged in Indonesia about a decade ago after a 20-year absence. In recent months, outbreaks have been reported in Sumatra, Kalimantan and Java. In some villages as many as half of all residents were believed to be infected.

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.

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

In laboratory experiments, they created a safe variant of these virus-like particles and immunized 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 developed in the macaques into genetically modified mice that essentially had no immune system.

The serum completely protected the rodents 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 said.

“The next step is to figure out how to make it compatible for human use. We are in the process of adapting that to a cell line where it could be made and tested in phase-one trials,” Nagel said.



AFP, Antara, JG