LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have taken a step closer to creating a safer vaccine against rotavirus infection, which causes the most common form of diarrhoea and vomiting in children.
A team of scientists from Harvard Medical School and the Children’s Hospital Boston in the United States has produced atom-level models of key proteins that form part of the rotavirus. The findings are published in the journal Nature.
Rotavirus infects almost all children, usually between six months and two years old, and kills an estimated 440,000 children per year, mostly in poor countries.
A live virus vaccine, called RotaShield, was pulled from the U.S. market in 1999 over fears it could cause gastrointestinal complications. But the American researchers said a vaccine produced from the proteins they modelled could be more stable, cheaper and safer.
The proteins, on parts of the virus they called the “head” and “body” of the virus, contain many of the targets that trigger an immune response, they said.
“The work is a clear example of the way in which structural studies can contribute to new good ideas about strategies for vaccines,” senior investigator Stephen Harrison said in a statement.
“A vaccine based on these proteins could be very practical, especially for developing countries where rotavirus causes the most serious illness,” the statement said.
MeSH Headings:Rotavirus Infections: Viral Proteins: Viral Structural ProteinsCopyright © 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.
