This post<\/a> was originally published on this site<\/a><\/p>\n\n
Just one dose of an experimental Zika vaccine provided mice with 100 percent protection against a potentially lethal dose of the virus, researchers report.<\/p>\n
The quick spread of the Zika virus and its devastating effects on the brain development of babies have made the need for a vaccine to protect against this mosquito-borne virus a global issue. Currently, the main way to ward off the virus is to avoid mosquito bites.<\/p>\n
The vaccine relies on technology previously used to create experimental vaccines for HIV and Ebola virus. It was developed by GeoVax, a company specializing in vaccines based in Atlanta. Tests of the vaccine were done at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Colorado, with funding by a grant from the CDC.<\/p>\n
The new vaccine targets a specific Zika virus protein called NS1. This protein interferes with the mosquito immune system, which allows the virus to replicate.<\/p>\n
\u201cA vaccine that can induce effective antibodies to NS1 and disable its function has the potential to reduce growth and transmission of Zika virus in its mosquito vector,\u201d said Farshad Guirakhoo, chief scientific officer at GeoVax.<\/p>\n
For the study, researchers gave otherwise healthy mice a high dose of the Zika virus. The virus was administered directly to the rodents\u2019 brains.<\/p>\n
\u201cA single dose of GeoVax\u2019s NS1 vaccine candidate protected 100 percent of vaccinated animals,\u201d Guirakhoo said in an American Society for Microbiology release.<\/p>\n
Mice in a control group were given a placebo vaccine. They were then given the virus. Up to 90 percent died in about one week, the researchers reported.<\/p>\n
Although the vaccine\u2019s performance in mice appeared promising, research in animals doesn\u2019t always turn out as well in humans.<\/p>\n
The study\u2019s findings were presented last week at the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology, in New Orleans. Findings presented at meetings are generally viewed as preliminary until they\u2019ve been published in a peer-reviewed journal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This post was originally published on this site Just one dose of an experimental Zika vaccine provided mice with 100 percent protection against a potentially lethal dose of the virus, researchers report. The quick spread of the Zika virus and its devastating effects on the brain development of babies have made the need for a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77752\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}