A team of scientists at the University of Copenhagen has advanced new technology for developing vaccines. They attach a gene from the target virus to a chain of amino acids, load it into an incapacitated virus and then inject it. The vaccine immediately triggers a strong immune reaction, which may also work against cancer.
"We are excited to be working on the vaccine technology," Associate Professor Jan Pravsgaard tells Medical News Today. "The platform has proved very effective in our recent tests and could have enormous potential. In principle, vaccines of this type could be used to inoculate against a range of deadly viruses, bacteria and other disease-causing agents and even be used to cure certain cancers once they take hold."
The research team says the new approach, an improvement on the DNA vaccines in development now, has already demonstrated 100 percent effectiveness in mice against lethal strains of the flu. And they add that because InVacc activates the CD4+ T cells they can spur a much stronger immune response than what's been seen up to now.
- read the report in Medical News Today