Thanks Andy:) - SA Researchers Make Stunning Breakthrough: Hepatitis C Vaccine A Possibility

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From: (Andy) Aitken

SA Researchers

Make Stunning Breakthrough: Hepatitis C Vaccine A Possibility

The

San Lightning ^ | 6 February 2004 | San Lightning Staff

Posted on 02/06/2004 11:46:36 AM PST by Rael Seven Crosses

Roughly one in twenty-five Americans carries a

deadly strain of hepatitis, but now a global breakthrough by San

researchers suggests a vaccine can be crafted.

Dr. E. Lanford, of the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research, has

visions of a generation of humans immune to the silent killer, hepatitis C. HCV

is the leading cause of liver failure and liver transplantation in the US,

according to Lanford. Lanford’s research supports the position that a

single vaccine may prevent infection of all of the complicated genotypes

associated with HCV.

“Originally, several years ago, my lab for the first time demonstrated

that Chimpanzees that have been infected with HCV, and have resolved their

infections, are protected when they are re-challenged with a similar virus than

the one they cleared.”

“We…demonstrated that if you clear that virus, and see a similar

virus, you will clear it,” Lanford told the Lightning in an exclusive

interview.

Like the AIDS virus, HCV is very diverse, resulting in several strains or

“genotypes.” Because of the divergence of the virus, researchers

have been pessimistic that a single vaccine would prove an effective defense to

all of HCV’s variations. With HIV and influenza, no single vaccine can

protect the vaccinated individual from various strains of the deadly organisms.

Lanford’s research strongly suggests that this is not the case with HCV.

Many if not most carriers of the disease are unaware that they are victims

until symptoms emerge years after infection. Often, the victims learn of their

conditions decades after contraction. In the US,

approximately 2 percent of the general population carries HCV. Americans aged

40 to 60 years suffer at a rate of 4 percent. The numbers reach as high as 6

percent within certain ethnic groups and social strata. The implications for

healthcare savings and global health are considerable.

Lanford’s laboratory at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research

continues to work closely with other institutions, such as Dr.

’ lab at s Hopkins University School of Medicine, through the

Southeastern Hepatitis C ative Research Center. The effort is funded by

the National Institute of Health. Lanford adds that the Southwest Foundation

for Biomedical Research is working closely with four major pharmaceutical

companies towards a cure for those already infected.

Lanford’s revelation was the result of years of research on chimpanzees

at the Foundation, located in San , Texas.

Besides humans, chimpanzees are the only animals that are susceptible to the

virus, though they do not suffer the debilitating affects of the disease. In

fact, many of the study animals completely shake the bug. The

Foundation’s noble population of chimpanzees were instrumental in this

current breakthrough.

Lanford emphasized the Foundation’s respect for chimpanzees as a wildlife

resource, and explained that due to the chimps’ forty-plus year lifespan

in captivity, many career animal care workers at the Foundation develop

lifelong friendships with the animals.

The Foundation has an investigator that evaluates all proposed use of

chimpanzees in experimentation. Each proposal is then reviewed by an

independent committee, the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee,

comprised of scientists and lay people from outside the Institute. The process

is in place to assure that chimps are only used in “critical”

research. The chimpanzees used in this study were subject to very little

discomfort, mostly blood sampling, according to Lanford.

The Foundation’s chimpanzee population are provided with indoor-outdoor

habitats and color TV. “It’s something that they enjoy,”

Lanford said.

Lanford, his colleagues at the Southwest Foundation, and collaborators at the

s Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore

detail their discovery in an article to be published in the Journal of Virology

for its first edition for the month of February.

TOPICS: Breaking News; Culture/Society; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; US: Texas; Unclassified

KEYWORDS: HEALTH; HEALTHCARE; HEPATITIS; MEDICAL; SANANTONIO; SCIENCE; TEXAS; VACCINE