2024-01-24 12:19:55
Professor Zhao Daiyu’s research team takes a group photo in the laboratory, with Professor Zhao Daiyu on the left. (Provided by Professor Zhao Daiyu of National Chung Hsing University)
[The Epoch Times, January 24, 2024](The Epoch Times reporter Xu Jialin reported in Taipei, Taiwan) Taiwan is located at the junction of the subtropics and the tropics. The climate characteristics make it easy for vector mosquitoes to survive, which also leads to the spread of dengue virus. In theory, it can spread dengue fever. Aedes aegypti mosquitoes can also transmit Zika virus, but Taiwan has never had a local epidemic of Zika virus, and there has not even been a pandemic in Asia.
Professor Zhao Daiyu from the Institute of Microbiology and Public Health, College of Veterinary Medicine, National Chung Hsing University. (Provided by Professor Zhao Daiyu of National Chung Hsing University)
The research team of Zhao Daiyu, a professor at the Institute of Microbiology and Public Health, College of Veterinary Medicine, National Chung Hsing University, published the latest research in the journal “Communications Biology” on the 24th. It was found that patients infected with dengue virus had previously been infected with Japanese encephalitis virus or had been vaccinated against Japanese encephalitis virus. The encephalitis vaccine induces the production of broadly neutralizing antibodies, which can inhibit at least six flaviviruses (Flaviviridae) including Zika virus.
Dengue virus, Japanese encephalitis virus and Zika virus that cause dengue fever all belong to the flavivirus family. This virus uses humans and other mammals as natural hosts and is transmitted through the bites of vector mosquitoes or ticks, but it is different from flaviviruses. The spread and prevalence of the virus vary in different regions. The Zika virus, which once caused a pandemic in Central and South America, has never become a pandemic in Asia, which has puzzled the scientific community.
According to the CDC announcement, Zika virus can cause fever combined with rash, joint pain or conjunctivitis (red eyes), and sometimes symptoms such as headache, muscle aches, and posterior orbital pain, and even neurological or immune system diseases. But the most dangerous thing is that if pregnant women are infected with the Zika virus, they may give birth to newborns with microcephaly, malformation and other abnormalities. In 2015, it was declared an international public health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO), and the international community urgently invested in the development of a Zika vaccine.
However, Zhao Daiyu said that Zika vaccine may also cause antibody-dependent enhancement after vaccination, which may actually increase the risk of dengue fever infection. This has also become a bottleneck in the development of Zika vaccine.
In the past, to prevent infectious diseases, people usually developed exclusive vaccines for a single virus and waited until the disease appeared before starting prevention. Zhao Daiyu’s team noticed that there has not been a Zika virus pandemic in Asia, and there are very few cases of cerebellum caused by Zika virus, so they recruited Taiwanese people who had been infected with dengue fever or received the Japanese encephalitis vaccine to conduct research.
The research team isolated monoclonal antibodies from patients infected with dengue fever and found that the two most powerful monoclonal antibodies can fight at least six flaviviruses at the same time, including dengue virus types 1 to 4, Zika virus and Japanese encephalitis virus, for the first time in the world, has been found to have broad antibodies against six flaviviruses.
Zhao Daiyu pointed out that due to the limitation of finding broadly neutralizing antibodies from only one dengue fever patient, more research cases are still needed to support it; in future vaccine development for flaviviruses, it is not necessarily necessary to develop a vaccine for each virus. If broadly neutralizing antibodies are taken into account, waste of medical resources can also be avoided. The team is also currently collaborating with the Pasteur research team in France to find out the mechanism by which the antibody has broad protection, which will have an important impact on future vaccine development.
Zhao Daiyu believes that such research results have an important impact on the development of vaccines against dengue fever, Zika, Japanese encephalitis virus and other flaviviruses, as well as vaccination strategies; because the Japanese encephalitis vaccine has been fully vaccinated in Taiwan, it is extremely safe Vaccine, the research results can also provide a new direction for the dilemma of Zika vaccine development, and the Japanese encephalitis vaccine can be evaluated in combination with other flavivirus vaccines to induce broad protection as a new vaccination strategy.
She also pointed out that the study only believed that the possibility of Zika virus epidemic in Taiwan is extremely low, but most people may not have been infected with dengue fever even if they have been vaccinated against Japanese encephalitis, so there is still a risk of infection when traveling to overseas areas where Zika virus is endemic. .
Xiao Xinhong, a professor of tropical medicine and parasitology at the National Taiwan University School of Medicine, said through the Taiwan Science and Technology Media Center (SMC) that although dengue fever is prevalent in Taiwan, there are still fewer cases compared with other countries, so it is difficult to obtain a large number of dengue fever patient plasma. Samples, as the basic material for research, especially lack specimens from patients in the late recovery stage (for example, recovery after more than 6 months), so it is difficult to adequately connect research inferences with the actual situation.
Yu Guanyi, an associate researcher at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases and Vaccines of the National Institutes of Health, also pointed out through SMC that based on the results of this study, when evaluating the suitability of dengue vaccines in the future, it can also be evaluated whether it also has good protection against Zika virus. Make appropriate recommendations for future vaccination strategies. However, until a safe and effective dengue vaccine is available, emphasis should still be placed on avoiding mosquito bites and preventing and treating Aedes aegypti. ◇
Editor in charge: Chen Minqi
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