A team of molecular biologists and computer scientists at Stony Brook University have used a novel method to weaken (attenuate) influenza virus by way of designing hundreds of mutations to its genetic code to create an effective vaccine. Reported online and in the July issue of Nature Biotechnology, the method may be a major step in developing more effective and safe vaccines against influenza, which claims 250,000 to 500,000 lives annually worldwide, partly because existing vaccines are not fully effective.
The research is an outgrowth of years of investigation by a team headed by Eckard Wimmer, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor, Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at Stony Brook University. In 2002, Dr. Wimmer and colleagues synthesized and generated poliovirus, the first artificial synthesis of any virus. Two years ago, they designed and synthesized a new class of attenuated polio viruses. Viruses attenuated by traditional means often make effective vaccines but sometimes mutate to regain virulence. The creation of synthetic viruses nearly eliminates the possibility of the virus regaining virulence.
In their latest research, the same method that the team used to create weakened synthetic polio viruses was employed to design an influenza vaccine. They found this vaccine effective and safe against influenza in mice.
"Essentially, we have rewritten the virus' genetic instructions manual in a strange dialect of genetic code that is difficult for the host cell machinery to understand," says Steffen Mueller, Ph.D., Senior Author and Research Assistant Professor of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology. "This poor line of communication leads to inefficient translation of viral protein and, ultimately, to a very weak virus that proves to be ideal for immunization."