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https://theconversation.com/to-eradicate-polio-once-and-for-all-we-need-a-new-vaccine-thats-what-were-working-on-252086>
"Aside from recent outbreaks of polio in war-torn regions of the world, the
deadly virus is close to being eradicated, thanks to vaccines.
All vaccines work by training our immune systems to recognise a harmless piece
of a virus or bacteria so that when the real thing is encountered later, the
immune system is prepared to defeat it.
There are two types of polio vaccine in use. One is the inactivated poliovirus
vaccine (IPV), and the other the live-attenuated oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV).
The IPV is made by “killing” large quantities of poliovirus with a chemical
called formalin, making it unable to replicate. The immune system is then
“trained” to recognise the poliovirus – which is thankfully rendered safe by
formalin.
The OPV vaccine contains a weakened (or “attenuated”) version of the virus.
These changes in the virus’s genetic code stop it from causing disease.
However, as the OPV vaccine is still capable of replicating, it can revert to a
form that can cause disease, with the potential to cause paralysis in
unvaccinated people.
Because of these risks, scientists are now looking for safer ways to create
vaccines – methods that don’t require growing large amounts of the live virus
in high-security labs, as is done for IPV.
Our research team has taken an important step towards producing a safer and
more affordable polio vaccine. This new vaccine candidate uses virus-like
particles (VLPs). These particles mimic the outer protein shell of poliovirus,
but are empty inside. This means there is no risk of infection, but the VLP is
still recognised by the immune system, which then protects against the disease.
This vaccine candidate uses technology that’s already being used in hepatitis B
and human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines. Thanks to VLPs, since 2008, there have
been no cervical cancer cases in women in Scotland who were fully vaccinated
against HPV. Over the past ten years, our research group has worked to apply
this successful technology in the fight to eradicate polio."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
