A collaborative team of scientists from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) here, and the Australian Animal Health Laboratory have demonstrated an important biological feature of the deadly Nipah virus that can infect and kill both animals and humans.
In the cover article of the Sept. 15 edition of the Journal of Infectious Diseases , published ahead of print on Aug. 14, Dr. Christopher Broder, Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at USU, along with his Australian colleagues, reported the first experimental evidence that Nipah virus can be vertically transmitted in cats, a naturally infected animal host which also consistently exhibits characteristic disease pathology caused by Nipah virus. An accompanying editorial commentary further highlighting the importance of their findings is published in the same issue.
Earlier work by this same group of investigators developed a vaccine based on a component of the virus known as the G glycoprotein which demonstrated complete protection from infection by Nipah virus in the cat model. These results were reported in the Dec. No.27, 2006, issue of the Journal of Virology.