14 DAY TRIAL // A team of scientists from the University of Leeds are tying a new approach that should be safer and more effective in fighting against polio and finally eradicating the disease.
This new approach consists in tricking the body to develop immunity against polio, by creating a replica virus particle that looks and behaves like the real virus, except it's actually an empty protein shell.
Professor Dave Rowlands and Dr Nicola Stonehouse from the University's Faculty of Biological Sciences believe the fake virus will activate the body's immune system, but since it does not contain the genetic blueprint that replicates the virus inside the body, it presents no risk of causing or helping to spread the disease.
Dr Stonehouse said that “this is an entirely new strategic approach against polio.
“This project is not about improving the efficiency of the current types of vaccine.
“Our intention is to design and produce a replica virus particle that carries no RNA cargo.
“This means it will be entirely safe to use as it can't ever cause the disease, and unlike current vaccines, can be produced without needing to grow large amounts of the infectious virus.”
A similar approach has already been successfully used to create the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine against cervical cancer, but in this case, it's the complexity of the polio virus that adds some extra challenges.
Professor Rowlands explains that “with polio, the virus particle's surface matures and changes because of the genetic material inside, and so ensuring that our replica particle mimics this surface exactly is not going to be easy.
“Since it's essentially an empty protein shell, it also has to be robust enough that it doesn't fall apart.
“This will be an iterative process, where we keep testing, refining and improving the particles we design until we achieve exactly the right structure and surface.
“We believe that if the project is successful, this new approach could help to completely eradicate this disease for good.”
For now, the first step is to prove that this approach is a viable one and that it will be successful against the virus.
Polio vaccines are currently injected or delivered orally, but they contain either a weak form of the virus, or an inactive virus to start the immune response, and even if these vaccines are efficient, in several countries the virus persists and outbreaks unexpectedly.
“What excites me about this project is that we're working towards a risk-free vaccine that will be essential for the complete eradication of polio from the globe,” said Dr Stonehouse.
“As well as being safe to produce and use, it will be stable enough not to need refrigeration and could be injected as part of current childhood vaccination programs.”
The team was led by Leeds and included researchers from Harvard University, the University of Oxford and the UK's National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC), a center of the Health Protection Agency.
The project has been awarded $500,000 from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, through the World Health Organization.