MERS coronavirus: A vaccination against all strains?
Testing of antibodies.
There is a ray of hope in the fight against the dangerous MERS coronavirus (MERS-CoV): a single vaccine could potentially be sufficient to effectively fight all known MERS-CoV genetic lineages. Research findings from the University Hospital of Bonn and the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) are pointing into this direction. The study is now published online in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology.
The pathogens that are currently circulating are not identical and belong to different genetic lineages. A total of 23 of these MERS-CoV strains have been isolated worldwide, out of which 20 alone were isolated in this current study. The researchers at the University Hospital of Bonn and the DZIF have now more closely investigated three isolates belonging to the main genetic lineages. In order to do this, they added blood serum of patients who had survived a MERS infection to the respective viruses. Result: The antibodies in the blood were able to efficiently neutralise each of the virus isolates.
Read more in the University Bonn Press Release (German)
