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They are determined to 'vaccinate' us one way or another!

 

Jo

 

Scientists are developing a single vaccine to neutralise botulism as a

potential bio-weapon.

 

UK biotechnology company Cambridge Biostability has been awarded a $3.5m

(£1.85m) grant by the US government.

 

Botulinum toxin is the most poisonous substance known - estimates suggest a

gram could kill more than 1m people.

 

The company says the vaccine would make botulism - said by experts to be on

the potential bio agents A-list - no more of a public health threat than

tetanus.

 

Botulism is caused by a nerve toxin which comes in seven slightly different

forms and is produced by six different, but closely related, bacteria.

 

It is usually contracted by eating contaminated food, although it can also

colonise open wounds that are not properly dressed.

 

But it is also technically possible to create an aerosol which could spread

the bacteria through the air, potentially affecting large numbers of people

who breathed them in.

 

It affects the body within hours, resulting in death or a paralysis which

can last for months, during which time the casualty is unable to breathe

without a respirator.

 

Vaccines for botulism do exist - but they are not effective against all the

different types.

 

Therefore, in the event of an attack a person would need to be given

multiple vaccine injections - possibly as many as 21 - to cover all the bugs

 

Safe storage

 

Cambridge Biostability aims to solve this problem by creating a single

vaccine.

 

A vaccine is created by turning the poison into a toxoid - a weaker

non-toxic version that still triggers an immune response in the body.

 

But each type of toxoid has to be kept separately.

 

Dr Bruce Roser, chief scientific advisor for Cambridge Biostability, said

the company had developed a technique called stable liquid technology which

allows each toxoid to be encapsulated in its own microsphere.

 

The microspheres can be mixed and kept at room temperature without harming

the vaccine.

 

Dr Roser said: " This means that for the first time it is possible to create

a single multivalent vaccine which can be stored safely without

refrigeration.

 

" Mass vaccination of the entire population would be feasible, in the way

that it is done for tetanus. "

 

Aping nature

 

The new technology is based on a natural phenomenon.

 

Some plants and creatures can remain in a desiccated state for hundreds of

years by reducing the water content of their bodily fluids.

 

Water within the cells is replaced with a sugar solution, which thickens

when water is excluded to a point of solidifying as a glass and the organism

dries out.

 

When rehydrated they " return to life " .

 

This process is being applied for the first time to vaccines.

 

Sugar hardens to form a non-crystalline glass. So the vaccine is first

spray-dried using the sugar syrup to form microscopic glass spheres.

 

The dry vaccine is then suspended in an approved inert liquid, which can be

injected into muscle where bodily fluids reactivate the vaccine.

 

Phil Luton, a spokesman for the Health Protection Agency, said a single

vaccine against botulism would be very useful.

 

He told the BBC News website: " Botulinum toxin is certainly one of the

agents on the A-list of potential bio agents. "

 

He said Saddam Hussain had loaded it into military shells for potential use

in military germ warfare in the 1990s.

 

Cambridge Biostability will be working in collaboration with US-based

DynPort Vaccine Company.

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