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Live recombinant vaccinia virus protects chimpanzees against hepatitis B

Nature volume 311, pages 67–69 (1984)Cite this article

Abstract

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is an important human pathogen responsible for over 200 million cases of chronic infection, many of which progress to hepatocellular carcinoma. Although HBV cannot be propagated in tissue culture, highly effective subunit vaccines obtained from the plasma of chronically infected patients have been developed and licensed1–3. Such vaccines are safe but their expense and limited quantities make them unavailable to most Third World countries. Other approaches to vaccine construction, including purification of the HBV surface antigen (HBsAg) from genetically engineered eukaryotic cells4–13 and the synthesis of peptides predicted from the nucleotide sequence of the HBsAg gene14–19, are still under evaluation. Another potential application of recombinant DNA technology to vaccine development is the use of live virus vectors to express foreign genes20–25. An infectious vaccinia virus recombinant that expressed the HBsAg in animal cells and which stimulated the production of antibody to HBsAg (anti-HBs) in rabbits represented a novel candidate vaccine of this class22,23. As a continuation of our earlier study, we now present evidence that chimpanzees vaccinated with a live recombinant vaccinia virus were protected against hepatitis following challenge with HBV.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Viral Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, 20205, USA

    Bernard Moss & Geoffrey L. Smith

  2. Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, 20205, USA

    Robert H. Purcell

  3. Division of Molecular Virology and Immunology, Georgetown, University Medical Center, Rockville, Maryland, 20852, USA

    John L. Gerin

Authors
  1. Bernard Moss
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  2. Geoffrey L. Smith
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  3. John L. Gerin
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  4. Robert H. Purcell
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Moss, B., Smith, G., Gerin, J. et al. Live recombinant vaccinia virus protects chimpanzees against hepatitis B. Nature 311, 67–69 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1038/311067a0

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