BANFF, Alta. – Modern medicine is approaching diseases at the cellular level for cheaper and more effective cures, says the head of the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization in Saskatoon.
Lorne Babiuk told the Banff Pork Seminar on Jan. 18 that genetic modification is a different approach to developing a variety of safer and more effective vaccines for diseases affecting humans and livestock.
He said this knowledge is especially important for the pork industry because many diseases that harm pigs can also infect humans.
“Swine are potentially very good mixing vessels for pandemic influenza so they could really be the source of the next pandemic,” he said.
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In the last 30 years, 30 new diseases have been diagnosed and all carry a high cost. Eighty percent of new diseases are zoonotic, which means they are able to infect more than one species.
“Infectious diseases are not only costly but will continue to plague the industry,” Babiuk said. “We don’t know what it will be or which species it might affect.”
Vaccinations are more economical than other therapeutic approaches and work with genetic modification shows promise in stimulating the natural immune system.
It starts at the cellular level and requires knowledge of the antigens involved in inducing protection.
Bacteria may contain about 3,000 different proteins but only a few may induce disease.
New ways of administering the vaccine are also more effective than giving the patient a needle that can break or leave a scar. Formulation and delivery of the medication are critical.
“You can have the best antigens in the world and if you do not formulate them properly and deliver them properly you will not reach the full potential of the vaccine,” Babiuk said.
There are several ways to administer a vaccine: orally through feed or water; nasally with an aerosol, and transcutaneously, in which a patch is applied to the animal’s skin.
Scientists are finding the immune response is identical to subcutaneous injections.
“If you design it properly, you can get effective response or as effective as you did with conventional needles,” he said.
In nasal delivery, a live vaccine goes into the respiratory tract and activates the immune system under the tissue surface, producing antibodies. This prevents disease from attaching to the cells and seems to reduce virus replication.
A lipid-based delivery system where the medication is incorporated into emulsions and rubbed on the skin for immune response is also being studied.
New disease research is attempting to identify specific pieces of DNA involved in disease protection.
Work has started with a chicken
E. coli model and should later expand to pigs and cattle. The genetically modified treatment stimulates the immune system so the birds’ own system can fight off infection.
Babiuk said treatments that activate immune responses could reduce tissue damage, increase balanced immune responses and require less medication, which would lower production costs.
Antibiotics don’t clear away all infectious material and may leave resistant bacteria behind. Combining some of these new formulations with antibiotics encourages the animal’s own defences to clear infection.
Babiuk said the future for disease treatment is a combination of rapid diagnosis, identifying pathogens and treating with stimulators of the natural immune system as scientists better understand the pathways of immune stimulators to fight disease.
“We need to be looking at stimulators of innate immunity that will complement antimicrobial therapies and complement vaccinations,” he said.
