NEW YORK - Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have developed a genetically engineered bird flu vaccine that say completely protects chickens from the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.
"This is a very potent vaccine. It took roughly about 30 days to make the vaccine from when we received the sequence information from CDC in Atlanta," said lead researcher Dr Andrea Gambotto of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. This new method could herald in an era of genetically engineered vaccines that are quickly made and with cleaner methods than conventional vaccine production, which takes up plenty of time and needs to be grown on chicken eggs.
Experts also say that the conventional methods do not offer any guarantee as regards effectiveness of the vaccine. The Pittsburgh researchers also said that immunizing chicken might prove to be economically advantageous rather than going in for human immunization, "And if avian flu develops into a pandemic human strain - as many experts fear it may - the vaccine might complement traditional vaccines and be used to protect people," Gambotto observed.
Reporting in the February 15 issue of the Journal of Virology, the researchers said that nasal inhalation of the vaccine offered partial protection to chicken and mice, but injection gave 100 percent immunity. It was also found that injecting produced a "dual immnological reaction," meaning that the vaccine could also work against mutated versions of the virus.
Currently, the researchers are collaborating with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in order to get approval for human trials. "Eventually we will need to partner with a company for large-scale production of vaccine," Gambotto concluded.
