3 ms·

Let's hope that it makes its way through human trials. Even better, let's hope that their development platform generalizes. Lots of known nasties out there whic

Let's hope that it makes its way through human trials. Even better, let's hope that their development platform generalizes. Lots of known nasties out there which we can dramatically reduce with vaccines.

tim333 12y ago
Yeah it's a clever technique - knocking out the gene for one protein and then producing that protein elsewhere.
- JumpCrisscross 12y ago
  > knocking out the gene for one protein and then producing that protein elsewhere Why does this work?
  - k_sze 12y ago
    Probably because once the cultured virus is taken away from the host and put into the vaccine, it can no longer reproduce inside the recipient of the vaccine (unless the recipient happens to express the VP30 gene, which had to be engineering into the monkey kidney cells anyway). So virus in the vaccine can cause only minimal damage because it can't reproduce.
  - semi-extrinsic 12y ago
    If I understand correctly, the hard part safetywise is not making the vaccine, handling it and giving it to the monkeys. It's the fact that you then have to give the monkeys real Ebola to see if the vaccine worked. So the hard part is handling real Ebola and monkeys infected with it. What these guys have done is broken that real Ebola into two pieces, where one piece is only in the monkeys. So even in the worst case scenario that a monkey infects a human with "real" Ebola when they are testing the vaccine efficiency, the "real" Ebola is now unable to replicate itself in the human body. It's very clever. Edit: so I think the answer by k_sze is wrong, but I'm not sure. Is there an immunologist in the room?
    - maxerickson 12y ago
      The abstract makes it clear that the vaccine is the thing missing the protein: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2015/03/25/science.aaa4919.full http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2015/03/25/science.a... Previously, we showed that a whole EBOV vaccine based on a replication-defective EBOV (EBOVΔVP30) protects immunized mice and guinea pigs against lethal challenge with rodent-adapted EBOV. edit: to be clear, k_sze is not wrong, they tested the vaccine against active virus.
      - semi-extrinsic 12y ago
        Ok, good that you clarified. I was wrong.
  - maxerickson 12y ago
    When the protein is present, the Ebola is able to reproduce, manufacturing viral particles that look just like any other Ebola. In a host cell that does not manufacture the protein, the virus is unable to reproduce (apparently the jargon for this is "replication-defective"). So the virus particles manufactured above can be injected with little risk of infection.

tim333 12y ago

Yeah it's a clever technique - knocking out the gene for one protein and then producing that protein elsewhere.

JumpCrisscross 12y ago
> knocking out the gene for one protein and then producing that protein elsewhere Why does this work?
- k_sze 12y ago
  Probably because once the cultured virus is taken away from the host and put into the vaccine, it can no longer reproduce inside the recipient of the vaccine (unless the recipient happens to express the VP30 gene, which had to be engineering into the monkey kidney cells anyway). So virus in the vaccine can cause only minimal damage because it can't reproduce.
- semi-extrinsic 12y ago
  If I understand correctly, the hard part safetywise is not making the vaccine, handling it and giving it to the monkeys. It's the fact that you then have to give the monkeys real Ebola to see if the vaccine worked. So the hard part is handling real Ebola and monkeys infected with it. What these guys have done is broken that real Ebola into two pieces, where one piece is only in the monkeys. So even in the worst case scenario that a monkey infects a human with "real" Ebola when they are testing the vaccine efficiency, the "real" Ebola is now unable to replicate itself in the human body. It's very clever. Edit: so I think the answer by k_sze is wrong, but I'm not sure. Is there an immunologist in the room?
  - maxerickson 12y ago
    The abstract makes it clear that the vaccine is the thing missing the protein: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2015/03/25/science.aaa4919.full http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2015/03/25/science.a... Previously, we showed that a whole EBOV vaccine based on a replication-defective EBOV (EBOVΔVP30) protects immunized mice and guinea pigs against lethal challenge with rodent-adapted EBOV. edit: to be clear, k_sze is not wrong, they tested the vaccine against active virus.
    - semi-extrinsic 12y ago
      Ok, good that you clarified. I was wrong.
- maxerickson 12y ago
  When the protein is present, the Ebola is able to reproduce, manufacturing viral particles that look just like any other Ebola. In a host cell that does not manufacture the protein, the virus is unable to reproduce (apparently the jargon for this is "replication-defective"). So the virus particles manufactured above can be injected with little risk of infection.