Science & Environment

Mers vaccine 'a step closer', say scientists

Image caption Camels are reservoirs for the infection

An effective vaccine to protect against the Mers virus is a step closer, a report in the journal Science suggests.




Mers-coronavirus infection of humans was first described in Saudi Arabia in 2012. Since then there have been more than 1,600 reported cases. More than a third of reported infections have resulted in death.



Mers: The new virus explained

Infections have been reported in 26 countries around the world with the outbreak epi-centre located in the Arabian Peninsula.



Solving a lumpy problem


The virus is particularly prevalent in juvenile camels, where infection results in mild symptoms that are similar to a common cold. The virus is thought to pass to humans when they have contact with an infected camel's body fluids.



Vaccines train our immune response to recognise a virus and to wipe it out before it can infect us or before it can do any harm.

Relying on old friends

There are two arms to this protection - antibodies and killer cells.


Image copyright SPL

Killer cells, as the name suggests, track down virus infected cells and kill the cell before new virus is released.

Some vaccines raise antibodies, some produce killer cells and some raise both. Prof Haagmans believed that the best way to control Mers was to develop a vaccine that produced both.



The Mers spike protein is thought to be a major target for the immune response. The team hoped that by cloaking MVA with this spike they would train the immune system to recognise and kill Mers.

First step




So, even though the vaccine didn't prevent infection it did reduce the amount of virus that the vaccinated camels produced.

Commenting on the research, Dr Matthew Frieman, Associate Professor at the University of Maryland at Baltimore, told BBC News: "This is the first step toward developing a viable vaccine against MERS-CoV in camels which could reduce the reservoir for MERS-CoV in the Middle East thereby reducing the likelihood of the spread of the virus to humans."

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