2012 OCT 29 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at AIDS Weekly -- Current study results on Immunization have been published. According to news originating from Los Alamos, New Mexico, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, "We report the rational design and in vivo testing of mosaic proteins for a polyvalent pan-filoviral vaccine using a computational strategy designed for the Human Immunodeficiency Virus type 1 (HIV-1) but also appropriate for Hepatitis C virus (HCV) and potentially other diverse viruses. Mosaics are sets of artificial recombinant proteins that are based on natural proteins."

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Theoretical Biology and Biophysics Group, "The recombinants are computationally selected using a genetic algorithm to optimize the coverage of potential cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) epitopes. Because evolutionary history differs markedly between HIV-1 and filoviruses, we devised an adapted computational technique that is effective for sparsely sampled taxa; our first significant result is that the mosaic technique is effective in creating high-quality mosaic filovirus proteins. The resulting coverage of potential epitopes across filovirus species is superior to coverage by any natural variants, including current vaccine strains with demonstrated cross-reactivity. The mosaic cocktails are also robust: mosaics substantially outperformed natural strains when computationally tested against poorly sampled species and more variable genes. Furthermore, in a computational comparison of cross-reactive potential a design constructed prior to the Bundibugyo outbreak performed nearly as well against all species as an updated design that included Bundibugyo. These points suggest that the mosaic designs would be more resilient than natural-variant vaccines against future Ebola outbreaks dominated by novel viral variants. We demonstrate in vivo immunogenicity and protection against a heterologous challenge in a mouse model."

According to the news editors, the research concluded: "This design work delineates the likely requirements and limitations on broadly-protective filoviral CTL vaccines."

For more information on this research see: Designing and testing broadly-protective filoviral vaccines optimized for cytotoxic T-lymphocyte epitope coverage. Plos One, 2012;7(10):e44769. (Public Library of Science - www.plos.org; Plos One - www.plosone.org)

The news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained from P.W. Fenimore, Theoretical Biology and Biophysics Group, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, United States (see also Immunization).

Keywords for this news article include: Peptides, Proteins, Vaccines, Los Alamos, New Mexico, Immunology, Amino Acids, Blood Cells, Immunization, United States, Biological Products, T Lymphocyte Epitopes, Mononuclear Leukocytes, Cytotoxic T Lymphocytes, Hemic and Immune Systems, North and Central America, CD8 Positive T Lymphocytes, Cytokine Induced Killer Cells.

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