Just as diseases such as avian flu and SARS have crossed species barriers, scientists at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization are trying to leap the same hurdle.
VIDO, born as an animal health research centre at the University of Saskatchewan, has been using the skills it has developed to build new methods of drug delivery and treatment for human health problems.
Pertussis, or whooping cough, has now been added to the human health focus of VIDO. Caused by the bacteria Bordetella pertussis, vaccinations have reduced the occurrence of this potentially fatal disease in all but the very young.
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Occasionally vaccines have limited effect due to conflicts with the mother’s immune system and the relationship to a newborn.
Antibodies passed on to the young by colostrums and mother’s milk can blind the newborn’s immune system to some diseases, including pertussis.
It is at birth and near weaning, when the young are most susceptible to infection, that VIDO’s research into mucosal surface delivery of vaccines can be most effective, according to Volker Gerdts, a lead scientist on the project.
Diseases like pertussis that infect via the airways and other mucosal surfaces need to meet protective antibodies head-on in these parts of the body for most effective control.
Gerdts said that as many as 95 percent of infectious diseases enter human or animal bodies through mucosal surfaces of the mouth, sinus, lungs and digestive tract.
For years, VIDO has been developing nasal and other mucosal drug delivery systems for use in cattle and pigs.
Diseases such as bovine respiratory virus and human respiratory system virus and whooping cough’s pig cousin, pertussis bronteceptica, are all diseases that can affect a newborn’s system and are the focus of control for VIDO.
“There can be a great deal of money in human disease control,” Gerdts said.
“That money helps scientists like me keep working on (drug delivery) platforms such as this that we can then apply to livestock vaccine development.”
VIDO has begun testing the pertussis control model in pigs and, according to Gerdts, it “shows real promise and should lead to some new innovations in animal disease control.
“It will take several years to develop a vaccine formulation for people, but it will happen here.”
