potemkin
Membership Revoked
What are the chances they will use this in a bio-terror drill?
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http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/20020416wo76.htm
Researchers develop 'pseudo' Ebola virus
Yomiuri Shimbun
Researchers have recently succeeded in creating a nonpoisonous "pseudo" virus of the incurable disease Ebola by using the genes of the deadly virus.
The pseudo virus does not have genes and is unable to trigger the disease or to reproduce itself. But its appearance is identical to the real virus, the researchers said.
The result has been attracting attention from medical researchers around the world as the achievement could lead to the development of treatment and prevention methods for the Ebola virus.
Until now research has been severely hampered by the extreme risks involved in handling the deadly virus.
Ebola is an acute hemorrhagic fever that is contracted through contact with infected blood and bodily waste. Ebola patients suffer from a high fever and bleeding inside the alimentary canal and other parts of the body. The mortality rate for Ebola patients is 90 percent.
A team led by Prof. Yoshihiro Kawaoka at Tokyo University's Institute of Medical Science and Takeshi Noda, a researcher at Hokkaido University's medical graduate school, succeeded in producing a protein shell with the same three-dimensional structure as the real Ebola virus.
They produced the pseudo virus by using two of the eight kinds of proteins that form the core of the Ebola virus. The inside of the pseudo virus is empty and thus has no genetic material. There is no risk of the pseudo virus developing any of Ebola's poisonous characteristics, the researchers said.
Because the pseudo virus, like the real one, can adhere to the surface of human cells, it can be used for study and the development of a vaccine and treatment with little risk.
The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, which is developing countermeasures against bioterrorism, has asked the researchers to provide it with details of their pseudo virus technology, it said.
To handle Ebola and other highly dangerous viruses requires use of a facility graded P4 according to global safety standards. Japan has only a handful number of facilities assessed with the P4 grading and local residents near these facilities are opposed to the study of such deadly viruses.
Kawaoka and his colleagues developed the technique at a P4 facility in Canada.
Ebola is still spreading in Gabon andthe Democratic Republic of Congo, where more than 70 of about 100 patients have already died.
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http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/20020416wo76.htm
Researchers develop 'pseudo' Ebola virus
Yomiuri Shimbun
Researchers have recently succeeded in creating a nonpoisonous "pseudo" virus of the incurable disease Ebola by using the genes of the deadly virus.
The pseudo virus does not have genes and is unable to trigger the disease or to reproduce itself. But its appearance is identical to the real virus, the researchers said.
The result has been attracting attention from medical researchers around the world as the achievement could lead to the development of treatment and prevention methods for the Ebola virus.
Until now research has been severely hampered by the extreme risks involved in handling the deadly virus.
Ebola is an acute hemorrhagic fever that is contracted through contact with infected blood and bodily waste. Ebola patients suffer from a high fever and bleeding inside the alimentary canal and other parts of the body. The mortality rate for Ebola patients is 90 percent.
A team led by Prof. Yoshihiro Kawaoka at Tokyo University's Institute of Medical Science and Takeshi Noda, a researcher at Hokkaido University's medical graduate school, succeeded in producing a protein shell with the same three-dimensional structure as the real Ebola virus.
They produced the pseudo virus by using two of the eight kinds of proteins that form the core of the Ebola virus. The inside of the pseudo virus is empty and thus has no genetic material. There is no risk of the pseudo virus developing any of Ebola's poisonous characteristics, the researchers said.
Because the pseudo virus, like the real one, can adhere to the surface of human cells, it can be used for study and the development of a vaccine and treatment with little risk.
The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, which is developing countermeasures against bioterrorism, has asked the researchers to provide it with details of their pseudo virus technology, it said.
To handle Ebola and other highly dangerous viruses requires use of a facility graded P4 according to global safety standards. Japan has only a handful number of facilities assessed with the P4 grading and local residents near these facilities are opposed to the study of such deadly viruses.
Kawaoka and his colleagues developed the technique at a P4 facility in Canada.
Ebola is still spreading in Gabon andthe Democratic Republic of Congo, where more than 70 of about 100 patients have already died.