14 DAY TRIAL // According to a new study published in the Advance Online Publication of Nature, Yale researchers are presently busy developing a new vaccine that could potentially keep people from becoming infected with HSV (herpes simplex virus, i.e. genital herpes).
The main drive behind their endeavor is represented by the fact that, although cases of genital herpes translate into noteworthy health problems and even death on quite a regular basis, proper treatment and effective means of immunization are still lacking.
Thanks to funding provided by the US National Institutes of Health, this team of specialists was able to perform laboratory experiments on mice.
The official website for the Yale University informs us that it was these experiments which lead them to the conclusion that activated T cells (i.e. antibodies for the immune system) could be recruited directly into the vaginal tissue by means of chemokines (i.e. compounds which act towards mobilizing the immune cells).
Apparently, once they are set in place, these T cells provide protection against HSV and keep it from spreading as it normally would.
Up until now, T cells have not been harnessed in organs such as intestines, central nervous system, lung airways and the vagina, seeing how they all restricted their access.
Akiko Iwasaki, presently employed as a professor of immunobiology at Yale School of Medicine, made a case of how, “This new vaccine approach can work with any vaccines that elicit strong T cell immunity, and will set the stage for protection against infectious diseases by setting up memory T-cells at the site of exposure.”
The researchers speculate that this vaccination model could also be efficient went it comes to providing some levels of protection against other sexually transmitted infections such as HIV-1.
As Akiko Iwasaki puts it, “This technology can be potentially applied to other infectious agents that enter through a given portal, such as the genital tract, respiratory tract, the skin, or gut.”