Scientists Develop SARS Vaccine

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by Staff Writers
College Park MD (UPI) Jul 20, 2006
U.S. scientists using the Newcastle Disease virus -- a common poultry disease -- say they have developed a vaccine for severe acute respiratory syndrome. The University of Maryland-College Park researchers say their vaccine, in early National Institutes of Health trials, successfully immunized monkeys against SARS and human parainfluenza viruses. They are now working on a vaccine for H5N1 avian influenza under a $4.1 million NIH contract.

The researchers at the school's Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine engineered a recombinant Newcastle Disease virus, or NDV, an avian paramyxovirus, to create a vaccine that holds promise to protect humans against multiple diseases.

"The Newcastle Disease virus makes a very good vector for creating human vaccines," said Siba Samal, the research team leader and VMRCVM associate dean.

"NDV replicates in species other than poultry, but not enough to cause disease. Also, there are nine types of paramyxoviruses and NDV is Serotype 1, so we can make similar vaccine vectors with other avian paramyxovirus types, which can be used to protect against more than one disease."

The study was presented last month during the International Conference on Negative Strand Viruses in Salamanca, Spain.

Source: United Press International

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