Zika virus is a member of the Flaviviridae virus family. In around one in four people the disease causes a mild illness known as Zika fever, which lasts for around four to seven days. In addition to fever, the symptoms can include rashes, joint pain and conjunctivitis. The virus poses a risk to unborn children carried by pregnant women.
No licensed therapies or vaccines to protect against the Zika virus are currently available; although several are in development. The new vaccine trailed out has been successful tested out in preclinical animal models. This is a key step, to verify safety as well as efficacy, ahead of any human trials.
The study results showed that all of the test animal models were protected from Zika virus infection post-vaccination. Discussing the trial outcome, lead researcher, Dr David B. Weiner of the Wistar Institute said: “Our results support the critical importance of immune responses for both preventing infection as well as ameliorating disease caused by the Zika virus.”
The researcher added: “As the threat of Zika continues, these results provide insight into a new aspect of the possibly protective ability of such a vaccine as a preventative approach for Zika infection.”
The vaccine successfully neutralized the virus, and provided a neuroprotective effect, preventing the vaccine from spreading to brain. This is an important aspect in relation to the risk that infants born with the disease have of developing microcephaly (a birth defect where a baby’s head is smaller than expected when compared to babies of the same sex and age).
The vaccine is being developed in conjunction with Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. The vaccine has been reported to the journal npj Vaccines. The research paper is titled “In vivo protection against ZIKV infection and pathogenesis through passive antibody transfer and active immunisation with a prMEnv DNA vaccine.”
