Intranasal SARS Vaccine Protects Monkeys from Infection

A single dose of a test vaccine sprayed into the nose protects monkeys against the SARS virus, according to Alexander Bukreyev, Ph.D., Peter Collins, Ph.D., and coworkers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The study, published in the June 26 issue of the British journal The Lancet, is the third recently issued by NIAID that describes a promising candidate vaccine against SARS. This vaccine differs from the previous two in that it is delivered directly into the respiratory tract, the primary site of SARS infection; it is the first U.S. vaccine to be tested in monkeys; and only one dose is needed for protection. The previous two vaccines were tested in rodents, and each required two doses for protection.