Latest news with #YoshihiroKawaoka
The Mainichi
26-05-2025
- Health
- The Mainichi
New nasal COVID vaccine offers high immunity in animal tests: Tokyo researchers
TOKYO -- A new type of coronavirus vaccine administered nasally has proven effective when tested on animals, researchers at the University of Tokyo Pandemic Preparedness, Infection and Advanced Research Center (UTOPIA) have announced. The research team including UTOPIA Director Yoshihiro Kawaoka claim that in addition to preventing serious illness, the nasal vaccine is expected to prevent the spread of infection by inhibiting growth of the virus in the nose. Since the global outbreak of COVID-19, vaccines using messenger RNA (mRNA), which contains genetic information, have been developed and put into widespread use for inoculations. However, there has been demand for new types of vaccines that boost immunity in areas where infection occurs, such as the upper respiratory tract, and which inhibit the spread of the virus even if infection occurs. The team created viruses using genetic information from which the parts of the coronavirus' genes needed to assemble viral particles were removed. Inside human and other cells, these engineered viruses create proteins needed for acquiring immunity. Because they cannot build the viral structure or core components themselves, there is no risk of them multiplying and spreading. When a vaccine with the artificial virus was administered nasally to mice, immunity was achieved on the mucous membranes of their nasal cavity and lungs. The new type reportedly achieves particularly wide immunity coverage in the lungs when compared to mRNA vaccines. Next, when a group of eight hamsters treated with the nasal vaccine was infected with the delta variant of the coronavirus and omicron's XBB subvariant, neither of these virus variants propagated in the lungs. The nasal cavities of around half of the hamsters were reportedly free of viral growth on the third day after infection, and even in the other half, the amount of growth was significantly suppressed, disappearing by the sixth day. Kawaoka commented, "The nasal vaccine is effective for respiratory tract infections and is thought to be effective in preventing the spread of infection. Unlike mRNA vaccines, it has the advantage of providing immunity similar to that acquired through actual viral infection." The results were published in the U.K. science journal Nature Communications.
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Study shows widespread H5N1 bird flu infection in cattle
Scientists are sounding alarms about a genetic mutation that was recently identified in four dairy cow herds, nearly one year after H5N1 bird flu was first reported in Texas dairy cattle. The change is one that researchers have dreaded finding because it is associated with increased mammal-to-mammal transmission and disease severity. "That is the mutation found in the first human case, which was extremely pathogenic in ferrets," said Yoshihiro Kawaoka, an infectious disease expert at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and the University of Tokyo. "Finding the same mutation in cows is significant." The mutation is called PB2 E627K, and it was seen in a Texas dairy worker last March. It was not seen again until these sequences were uploaded late Tuesday. The data was uploaded by the USDA's National Veterinary Laboratory Services to a public access genetic repository known as GISAID. Henry Niman, an evolutionary molecular biologist with Recombinomics Inc., a virus and vaccine research company in Pittsburgh, reviewed the sequence data and reported the results to The Times and on social media Wednesday. Last summer, Kawaoka exposed ferrets in his laboratory to that viral strain. He found the ferrets were able to transmit the virus to one another via respiratory droplets, and it killed 100% of the infected animals. The Texas dairy worker complained only of conjunctivitis; he didn't have a fever or show signs of respiratory dysfunction. The data provided to GISAID don't include location data, so scientists often use other information to identify the herds. In this case, because the sequence data was added Tuesday, it is likely from herds that were only recently reported by the USDA. In the last week, herds from Idaho and California have been added to the USDA's tally. The herds in California have the more common B3.13 strain, which has been associated with dairy cows since last year. The strain circulating in Idaho is D1.1, which spilled over from wild birds earlier this year. Therefore, the new sequence data added on Tuesday — which were of the B3.13 variety — are likely from infected California herds. Since the outbreak was first reported in dairy cows last March, 70 people have been infected and one person has died. According to the USDA, 985 dairy herds have been infected, with 754 of those located in California. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
