Overview
An especially virulent strain of the avian influenza virus has spread from Asia to Europe. The virus, as evidenced by the 1997 influenza outbreak in Hong Kong, can infect humans as well as birds. World leaders and health officials are taking the threat of a pandemic seriously, and pressure is on to develop effective containment measures and treatments including development of new and novel vaccines.Researchers at the University of Maryland have developed a cold-adapted avian influenza virus vaccine for use as live attenuated vaccines. A major advantage of the cold-adapted vaccine is that it cannot grow at warmer temperatures found in the lower respiratory tract, but grows well in the cooler nasal passages. This allows the vaccine to mimic a natural infection and induce immunity without causing disease. The traditional method for generating a cold-adapted virus is by passaging the virus at low temperatures, which could introduce unwanted mutations and is also time consuming. This novel method is a more efficient, reproducible and accurate way to acquire the cold-adapted virus for its use as a vaccine.
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