BioCentury
ARTICLE | Targets & Mechanisms

RSVing for site zero

November 14, 2013 8:00 AM UTC

Despite decades of research, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) remains a highly prevalent childhood pathogen without an approved vaccine.1 There is a marketed prophylactic-Synagis palivizumab-to prevent severe disease caused by RSV in at-risk infants, but the passive immunization provided by the antibody does not last from season to season, and its high cost precludes its use in other patient populations. Now, a team from the NIH has used structure-based design to generate RSV vaccines that showed strong neutralizing activity in both mice and macaques.2

The next step is picking a lead vaccine to advance into GMP production and clinical trials...