 |
 |
|
Recent technological advances may be able to speed up the vaccine production process. One approach abandons the use of chicken eggs in favor of growing the vaccine-precursor viruses in an artificially produced "cell culture."
Another process, in use by a team led by flu specialist Robert Webster of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, TN, involves using genetic engineering techniques in an attempt to "build" specific flu vaccine proteins amino acid by amino acid, allowing quick custom tailoring of vaccines to resemble circulating strains. Currently, since vaccine production harvests proteins from influenza viruses captured in the wild, by the time the vaccine is made available, wild viruses may have mutated so much that the vaccine is no longer useful.
Experiments are continuing into a "universal" flu vaccine that would ignore the variable HA and NA surface proteins and instead induce immunity against some of the more stable proteins in the influenza virus. The British firm Acambis has been conducting animal trials of such a vaccine, but use in humans may still be years away.
Antiviral drugs have shown promise in treating diseases such as HIV/AIDS, and there are several antiviral agents that are at least theoretically effective against type A influenza strains. Unfortunately, the Chinese government seems to have encouraged the use of one of the antiviral agents, amantadine, on threatened chicken flocks over the past few years, and as a result the current variant of H5N1 is resistant to the drug. Another antiviral, oseltamivir (manufactured by Roche under the name Tamiflu) is effective against H5N1 in the lab, but its usefulness against pandemic influenza is unknown.
Research into these methods continues, often in novel ways. Above we see a computer-generated model of a space-grown, highly purified crystal of the influenza enzyme neuraminidase, used in the design of antiviral drugs.
Credit: NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Briefing
Read a briefing on the dangers posed by avian influeza and the challenges nations must overcome in order to fight against it.
Interactive Map
Explore how avian flu is spreading across Asia.
Filmmaker Notes
Go behind the scenes with producer Micah Fink.
Info-Graphic
Learn how chemical and biological weapons work.
Interactive Challenge
Test your knowledge of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
|
|
|
|
|
|
