Developing Vaccines to Combat Pandemic Influenza
Author Information
Author(s): Robertson James S., Engelhardt Othmar G.
Primary Institution: Division of Virology, National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, Health Protection Agency
Hypothesis
Can reverse genetics be effectively used to develop safe and high-yielding vaccine viruses for pandemic influenza?
Conclusion
Reverse genetics has proven to be a successful method for creating safe and effective vaccine viruses for pandemic influenza.
Supporting Evidence
- Reverse genetics allows for the rational design of reassortant influenza vaccine viruses.
- Candidate vaccine viruses can be generated quickly in response to emerging pandemic threats.
- NIBRG-14, a candidate vaccine virus, was developed rapidly and shown to be safe for use.
Takeaway
Scientists are using a special technique called reverse genetics to create safe vaccines for flu viruses that can cause pandemics. This helps make sure the vaccines work well and are safe for people.
Methodology
The study discusses the use of reverse genetics to create vaccine viruses by cloning RNA segments of the virus into plasmids and expressing them in mammalian cell lines.
Limitations
The process of deriving high growth reassortants is serendipitous and not guaranteed to yield useful viruses within the short timeframe of annual vaccine production.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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