Super-engineered vaccines developed which may end polio
Scientists have ‘super-engineered’ polio vaccines to prevent them mutating into a dangerous form that can cause outbreaks and paralysis.
Polio can spread into the nervous system, causing paralysis. Cases have fallen by more than 99% since the late 1980s and about 20 million people who would have been paralysed can walk thanks to vaccines.
In Nature this week, Andrew Macadam at the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control in South Mimms, UK, and his colleagues report the development of novel oral polio vaccines that reduce the likelihood of vaccine-derived outbreaks occurring for poliovirus types 1 and 31 (Yeh et al, 2023).
These vaccines were created using an approach previously used to make a new type 2 polio vaccine known as nOPV22. The scientists used genetic engineering to slash the likelihood that the attenuated virus will revert to virulence.
The two latest vaccines were tested in mice and found to be effective, safe and stable. They are now being tested in human trials. If their safety and efficacy are as good as that of the nOPV2 vaccine, all three poliovirus subtypes will be covered.
However, better vaccines still need to reach every child in order to stop the disease.
There is more information in a linked Nature editorial.
