Sartorisu-Sowmya eBook - 12

DECIPHERING THE IMMUNE RESPONSE TO VIRAL INFECTION

Immunotherapy Targets Emerging Infectious Diseases
BIOLOGICS AND VACCINES GAINST EBOLA, ZIKA, AND CHIKUNGUNYA AT FOREFRONT OF DEVELOPMENT
By Kathy Liszewski

F

ear of deadly contagion drives the action in The Hot
Zone, a television drama inspired by the true story of
Ebola's first arrival in the United States in 1989. Although
the Ebola strain that breached our borders back then
was eventually found to be incapable of causing illness in
humans, The Hot Zone recreates flashback scenes depicting
the terrifying 1976 Ebola outbreak in Africa before cutting
back to the spectacle of hazmat-suited U.S. Army personnel
euthanizing infected animals and decontaminating lab
facilities.
More recent African outbreaks attest to the deadly nature of
this hemorrhagic fever and other emerging infectious diseases
and highlight the diligent efforts to create new therapies. As
in The Hot Zone, the challenges faced by everyday scientists
sometimes prompt them to rise to the occasion and become
real-life microbe-fighting heroes. They are already making
headway developing novel immunotherapeutic strategies to
attack and neutralize menacing and highly infectious viruses.
(Immunotherapy is also targeting other areas from cancer to
antibiotic resistance.)

12 | GENengnews.com

At the Baylor College of Medicine, Jeroen Pollett, PhD, and colleagues are developing
mRNA-encoded antibody therapies. The scientists have leveraged improvements
in mRNA vaccine formulations to enhance the transfection of antigen-presenting
cells and subsequent translation to therapeutic proteins. For example, they have
developed a multivalent antiparasitic mRNA vaccine against Chagas disease.

ADDITIONAL CONTENT
Whitepaper: Evolution of immune cell killing assays
This whitepaper demonstrates how the technique
of real-time live-cell analysis has evolved to meet
the changing requirements of immuno-oncology
research.

https://www.genengnews.com/author/kathyliszewski/ https://www.essenbioscience.com/en/forms/whitepaper-evolution-of-immune-cell-killing-assays/ http://www.GENengnews.com

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