Aerosol and nasal delivery of vaccines and antiviral drugs against seasonal and pandemic influenza.

Influenza is primarily a respiratory tract infection involving the exacerbation and inflammation of the respiratory tract, which can progress to life-threatening pneumonia, hypercytokinemia, edema, acute lung injury, respiratory failure and death. Viral mutations and drug resistance are the leading challenges in influenza prevention and treatment. Aerosol inhalation provides rapid availability and sustained therapeutic levels of antiviral drugs in the respiratory tract, without causing a systemic burden to unaffected tissues and organs.

Broad-spectrum and virus-specific nucleic acid-based antivirals against influenza.

Rapid increase in drug-resistant influenza virus isolates, and pandemic threat posed by highly pathogenic avian influenza A and swine flu viruses provide clear and compelling reasons for fast tracking development of novel antiviral drugs. Nucleic acid-based drugs represent a promising class of novel antiviral agents that can be designed to target various seasonal, pandemic and avian influenza viruses. Nucleic acids can be designed to elicit broad-spectrum antiviral responses in the host, by suppressing viral gene expression, or by inducing cleavage or degradation of viral RNA.

Broad-spectrum drugs against viral agents.

Development of antivirals has focused primarily on vaccines and on treatments for specific viral agents. Although effective, these approaches may be limited in situations where the etiologic agent is unknown or when the target virus has undergone mutation, recombination or reassortment. Augmentation of the innate immune response may be an effective alternative for disease amelioration.

Pre- and post-exposure protection against Western equine encephalitis virus after single inoculation with adenovirus vector expressing interferon alpha.

Western equine encephalitis virus (WEEV) is a positive-sense, single-stranded RNA virus which is transmitted to equines and humans through mosquito bites. WEEV infects the central nervous system with severe complications and even death. There are no human vaccine and antiviral drugs.

Single-dose, fast-acting vaccine candidate against western equine encephalitis virus completely protects mice from intranasal challenge with different strains of the virus.

Western equine encephalitis virus (WEEV) causes a fatal infection of the central nervous system in humans and horses. However, neither human vaccine nor antiviral drug is available. We found previously that immunization of mice with two doses of an adenovirus-vectored WEEV vaccine, Ad5-WEEV, confers complete protection against homologous WEEV challenge.

Gene expression profiling of systemically wound-induced defenses in hybrid poplar.

As part of an ongoing effort to identify genes involved in poplar defense responses, and to provide a resource for comparative analysis of woody and non-woody plant defense, we generated expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from a library constructed from systemically wounded leaves of hybrid poplar (Populus trichocarpa x P. deltoides). Partial sequences were obtained from the 5' ends of 928 individual cDNAs, which could be grouped into 565 non-overlapping sequences.

Intranasal immunization with liposome-encapsulated plasmid DNA encoding influenza virus hemagglutinin elicits mucosal, cellular and humoral immune responses.

Background: Influenza viral infections are a significant global public health concern due to the morbidity and mortality associated with acute respiratory disease, associated secondary complications and pandemic threat. Currently, the most effective preventative measure is an annual intramuscular (i.m.