GNL Lab Team Develops and Tests New Vaccine for MERS-CoV
Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS-CoV, is a dangerous respiratory infection with a 35 percent mortality rate, but a collaboration headed up by Dr. Chien-Te (Kent) Tseng, a professor at UTMB, has worked together to develop and test a new vaccine to protect against the disease, and that vaccine has shown considerable promise.
The research behind the vaccine, published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, was conducted by Dr. Tseng's lab team working at the Galveston National Lab, along with partners in Saudi Arabia and Canada.
MERS belongs to the common virus category known as Coronavirus, viruses which tend to cause "cold-like" illnesses. But the MERS Co-V can also cause severe respiratory illness and can spread among people through coughing and other aerosols.
U.S. cases of MERS have been limited to just two, both affecting physicians who had worked in Saudi Arabia, where the virus is believed to be spread to people by camels. The disease is of interest to the U.S. Military due to the large number of military personnel stationed in the Middle East Region.
“In the past, we’ve mainly focused on developing universal influenza vaccines, but we modified and optimized our vaccine platform to generate new potential MERS vaccines," said Tseng.
Two vaccines developed by the Tseng Lab were evaluated for effectiveness and safety in humanized mouse models. Mice that were vaccinated and then infected with MERS were protected against clinical signs of the disease and death, however one of the vaccines was unable to stop the virus from causing lung damage. The other vaccine prevented the lung damage.
Further research with the vaccine platform is underway, offering a promising future for protection against a disease that has thus far caused 2,250 confirmed cases spanning 27 countries.
The research behind the vaccine, published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, was conducted by Dr. Tseng's lab team working at the Galveston National Lab, along with partners in Saudi Arabia and Canada.
MERS belongs to the common virus category known as Coronavirus, viruses which tend to cause "cold-like" illnesses. But the MERS Co-V can also cause severe respiratory illness and can spread among people through coughing and other aerosols.
U.S. cases of MERS have been limited to just two, both affecting physicians who had worked in Saudi Arabia, where the virus is believed to be spread to people by camels. The disease is of interest to the U.S. Military due to the large number of military personnel stationed in the Middle East Region.
“In the past, we’ve mainly focused on developing universal influenza vaccines, but we modified and optimized our vaccine platform to generate new potential MERS vaccines," said Tseng.
Two vaccines developed by the Tseng Lab were evaluated for effectiveness and safety in humanized mouse models. Mice that were vaccinated and then infected with MERS were protected against clinical signs of the disease and death, however one of the vaccines was unable to stop the virus from causing lung damage. The other vaccine prevented the lung damage.
Further research with the vaccine platform is underway, offering a promising future for protection against a disease that has thus far caused 2,250 confirmed cases spanning 27 countries.