No Monkeying Around… Primate Could Have Cure to Zika
Monkeys may have the key to the cure to Zika.
FOX’s Alex Hein explains:
This is Housecall for Health.
Researchers are turning their attention to monkeys in the fight against Zika after three experimental vaccines were shown to protect the animals from infection.
According to one expert, the success in monkeys brings researchers one step closer to developing a safe and effective vaccine for humans, but he also cautioned that there’s much work left to do.
In the study, one vaccine followed the traditional approach of using a dead strain of Zika to train the body to fight off the infection. They got a booster months later and were shown to be protected.
In two other vaccine studies, the monkeys were given only the DNA of a single virus gene. It caused the monkeys bodies to pump out a protein found in the Zika virus, which it gave to the monkeys immune systems to attack the virus.
In total eight monkeys were protected from the virus. They predict a method will be available to humans in early 2018.
For more on this story check FOXNewsHealth.com.
Housecall for Health, I’m Alex Hein, FOX News.
