Avian flu vaccine may become reality

Penn researchers might be soaring into uncharted territory with new research that brings them a step closer to a vaccine against the avian flu.

Sixth-year Pharmacology Ph.D. candidate Dominick Laddy recently won the Maria Hillerman Award for his research of a vaccine that will hopefully prevent multiple strains of the flu, including avian.

According to Laddy, this research is unique because it is "the first to show cross-protection of different types of bird flu in a single DNA vaccine in ferrets and monkeys," and "it shows that a synthetic vaccine can work against bird flu."

In a nutshell, the researchers are working to create a consensus vaccine, which takes many different strains of the virus and synthesized a consensus DNA strain that will help fight the numerous variations of the rapidly mutating disease.

"This is the first study to show that a single DNA vaccine can induce protection against strains of pandemic flu in many animal models, including primates," said Pathology and Laboratory Medicine professor David Weiner.

Laddy explained that the goal is to move consensus vaccines into the clinical stage.

So far, the testing has been completed on monkeys. Generally, three stages of clinical trials ensue before the testing becomes a vaccine. This process takes many years because of the uncertainty that anyone tested would actually contract avian flu, Laddy said.

Drexel Molecular Medicines professor Kenneth Ugen, who has been involved in related DNA vaccine research in HIV/AIDS, wrote in an e-mail, "An effective vaccine against these types of pandemic avian flu viruses is very important and useful to develop."

The DNA vaccine created in Weiner's lab differs from previous work in the field because it "contains genes from different pandemic flu strains" in the hopes of creating a vaccine effective against these variable strains, Ugen wrote.

According to the scientific community, this kind of research is significant because, in an epidemic of a virus like the bird flu, the virus mutates so rapidly that immunizing against one strain alone will not stop the epidemic.

As of now, there is no treatment for the avian flu. There have only been a few hundred cases so far - mostly involving those who have had direct contact with birds in Asia.

But Weiner stressed that there is substantial worry about the possibility of a pandemic striking because the disease kills about one-third to one-half of those infected.

"It's a very scary infection," he added, noting the concern it could convert to seasonal flu, which spreads from person to person.

Laddy's work has received much praise. "It is a major contribution to the field of pandemic flu vaccine development," Ugen wrote.

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