Feline Vaccine Protects Against Multiple Subtypes.(Brief Article)

2001 AUG 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) --

by Michael Greer, senior medical writer - Researchers have developed a vaccine for the feline version of HIV that they say offers protection from a range of viral strains.

Ruiyu Pu and colleagues at the University of Florida, Kitasato University, Japan, and the Ft. Dodge Animal Health Division of American Home Products Corp., conducted a study to "evaluate the immunogenicity and efficacy of an inactivated dual-subtype feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) vaccine." The results of their research were published in the July 2001 edition of the journal AIDS.

The researchers found that vaccinated cats displayed a marked resistance to infection from multiple FIV subtypes, including strains not present in the vaccine.

Pu and research associated used the FIVPet and FIVShi subtypes to develop their vaccine, which protected four of five cats from both low doses of the heterologous subtype FIVBang and moderate doses of homologous FIVPet. Dual-subtype vaccines also protected all treated cats from infection after challenge with FIVPet derived in vivo. Single-subtype vaccines prevented infection in only one of five cats.

Cats treated with the dual-subtype vaccine developed antibodies capable of targeting a wide range of FIV subtypes, the researchers said. These cats also displayed heightened FIV-specific interferon-(gamma) activity as well as ...