New zika vaccine shows promise in animal models
In preclinical mouse models, scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have created a Zika vaccine technique that is both highly efficient and secure. The vaccine shielded both the expectant moms and the growing fetuses from contracting a systemic infection in a pregnant mouse model. The study has been published in the American Society for Microbiology journal Microbiology Spectrum. The section of the Zika genome that codes for the viral shell has to be deleted in order to engineer the vaccine, according to Vaithilingaraja Arumugaswami, D.V.M., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology at UCLA. "This alteration inhibits the virus' ability to replicate and move from cell to cell while also inducing an immunogenic response." Comparatively to unvaccinated mice, vaccinated mice displayed higher levels of cell-mediated immune response, as seen by increased effector T cell populations. The vaccine was examined by the researchers in nu...