A new mucosal vaccine has prevented infection from virus Nipah in hamsters and mice. This is demonstrated by the study of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, published in Science Advances. Researchers developed a one-dose intranasal vaccine that prevents Nipah virus infection in hamsters and mice as early as three days after administration.
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The new replicon-particle vaccine could be a significant step forward in efforts to protect against virus Nipaha disease that can be fatal, considered one emerging threat to public health due to its high mortality rates and its ability to transfer between multiple species.
The disease triggered by the Nipah virus
NiV is a bat-borne disease that is spread through direct contact with infected animals and their bodily fluids. The virus can cause severe respiratory and neurological symptoms leading to death in 80% of cases. Outbreaks have so far been limited to regions of South and Southeast Asia, mainly India and Bangladesh. However, interspecific transmission has raised concerns for the potential spread of the virus globally.
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The principle of the new vaccine
Most NiV vaccine candidates are still in preclinical development, and few studies have explored vaccines that use replicons, virus-like particles engineered without certain genes to trigger an immune response without causing infection.
Not, Stephen Welch, together with colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has developed a replicon-particle vaccine for NiV that lacks the fusion protein gene, which the virus needs to infect cells; the vaccine prevented NiV infections in hamsters and suckling mice as early as three days after administration. Mucosal vaccine in hamsters and mice elicited a strong antibody response, demonstrating high safety and protective efficacy against NiV infections.
“The platform composed of viral replicon particles represents an extremely beneficial tool for the field of henipavirusparticularly as it can be used at lower containment levels,” the authors said.
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