Preparing H5N1 vaccine for poultry from ... yeast bread

By applying cell surface technology in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast cell line, denoted MT8-1 (a familiar, non-toxic yeast, used to make bread yeast, alcohol fermentation) . .

. research group by MSc. Tran Thi Hong Kim (University of Natural Sciences, VNU-HCM) chaired the first step in creating an antigen-bearing yeast strain of H5N1 virus on the cell surface.

This cell line is capable of causing an immune response against H5N1 virus in white mice, opening the prospect of developing a cheap vaccine to prevent H5N1 for poultry.

Destroying ducks infected with H5N1 flu - photo: nongnghiep.vn

Unlike current vaccines for poultry that are currently imported, this vaccine for yeast cell prevention has advantages such as safety, low production costs, easy implementation in all regulations. tissue produced by common submerged fermentation systems, high stability, no need for cold storage, easy to use for oral poultry through mixing with poultry feed.

According to the research team, to develop a vaccine, it is necessary to test the protection ability of this yeast strain for mice and chickens that are infected with the virus. If the test results are well protected, vaccines can easily be produced through fermentation of this yeast cell biomass, without the need for expensive purification steps.

It is known that Vietnam has a project to produce H5N1 vaccine for poultry, but this vaccine has not yet overcome the inherent disadvantages of a full-fledged vaccine for poultry such as: needing cold storage, a lot of effort. , high cost, need to vaccinate many times, but still cannot ensure vaccination for all poultry, can not be used for wildlife, migratory birds .

The flu epidemic has occurred for a century but has always been a topical issue. The flu epidemic of 1918 -1929 killed over 20 million people worldwide; 1957-1958 killed over 70,000 people . Recently, the bird flu caused by the H5N1 strain is spreading to Asian countries like China, Thailand, Japan, Indonesia, Korea, Hong Kong. . H5N1 strain is one of the strains of influenza A virus that can infect poultry to humans, thereby causing human illness, and can cause death.

In Vietnam, since the outbreak of influenza, there have been 41 deaths among 91 people hospitalized for influenza infection. The amount of poultry died and destroyed about 100 million, causing about 4,000 billion VND damage.