Common cold during winter and changing seasons is irritating. But, it has a good reason to be loved in countries attacked with bird flu. Yes, one cause of the common cold, Adenovirus, may help protect against pandemic flu. Two separate groups of US scientists have successfully vaccinated mice and chickens with an adenovirus-based DNA vaccine against different strains of H5N1 bird flu. And they now want to test it in humans.
To stimulate a powerful immune response in the animals, the teams used a crippled adenovirus, which cannot replicate, as a carrier for the gene for haemagglutinin — the main surface protein of H5N1.
In both studies made by Andrea Gambotto at the University of Pittsburgh, and colleagues, and a separate team led by Suresh Mittal at Purdue University, Indiana, both vaccines completely protected mice from the virus from which the HA was sourced. And Gambotto’s group found it worked in chickens as well. But each vaccine also protected against the other strain. Such cross-protection is very limited with standard vaccines made of killed flu viruses.
Via: New Scientist