Canadian researchers just got $12.39 million to develop innovative, new vaccines that would help the elderly fight off respiratory viruses. Scientists now know that traditional vaccines for children and adolescents don’t necessarily work as well for older people.
Vaccines from plants
Vaccines now are made up of inactive of killed viruses. Researchers from several universities in the province Quebec are working on a new kind of vaccine that would instead be produced in the leaves of plants by tiny virus-like particles. “The plants make them with great efficiency,” says Dr. Brian Ward of McGill University and one of the project’s investigators.
“These little, viral –like particles seem to induce a very strong immune response,” says Ward and the response resembles more that of a real infection than of a traditional vaccine. This means the new vaccine could protect not just against one particular virus, but also other, closely-related virus. This is an advantage since viruses are constantly mutating.
The vaccines are being tested on animals and the new grant money will allow scientists to start testing them on people.
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