Zika vaccine comes closer to reality

A new study has paved the way for a promising vaccine for the Zika virus.

A new study has paved the way for a promising vaccine for the Zika virus. Preclinical results of research by City College of New York scientists and TechnoVax, Inc. in animal models demonstrated favourable outcomes in developing a vaccine against the mosquito-borne Zika virus. The results were announced by Tarrytown, New York-based TechnoVax, a biotechnology developer of novel vaccines whose proprietary virus-like particle (VLP) is the centre of the research. The VLP vaccine formulations tested in animals not only were highly effective in eliciting protective antibodies with neutralizing activity equivalent to or higher than the activity present in the serum of a patient who recovered from Zika infection but also were well tolerated and safe.

Jose M. Galarza, TechnoVax CEO, noted that the ZIKA VLP vaccine offers an effective and safe strategy to create a prophylactic vaccine that protect against Zika infection as well as its serious effects such as microcephaly. The ultimate goal of the collaboration is to expand the translational research with TechnoVax by completing the Zika vaccine development and initiate new vaccine projects directed to additional virus pathogens. The study appear online in the journal PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases.As of now, no diagnostic guidelines have been released by the Indian government. However, it is usually done based on the symptoms and blood tests like CBC (Complete blood count) might help in detection of platelet count and RBCs. Also, ultrasound might help in detection of fetal brain development in case of pregnant women.However, there have been reports that Brazilian researchers have developed a molecular test to detect Zika virus, which helps in detection of the virus in flat five hours. Here s more on the test to detect Zika designed by Brazillian scientists.

(Read: Smartphone app to detect Zika, dengue in 30 minutes)