BEIJING, June 12 (Xinhuanet) -- The creation of
a successful vaccine against cervical cancer, Gardasil, approved by the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration(FDA), is the culmination of research that occurred
thanks not only to scientists and physicians, but also to generous farmers and
veterinarians, priests and nuns willing to tell all -- and some very patient
cows.
At the University of Rochester Medical Center, the
initial research more than 20 years ago included visits to veterinarians and
meat-packaging plants in upstate New York to collect scrapings from "prized" cow
warts, and surveys of people unlikely to be infected with a sexually transmitted
disease -- priests and nuns who had taken a vow of celibacy.
The work with the cows, the warts, the nuns and the
priests illustrates how basic research can pay off in big and unexpected ways.
The research by a trio of University of Rochester virologists -- William Bonnez,
M.D., Richard Reichman, M.D., and Robert Rose, Ph.D. -- helped bring about the
cervical cancer vaccine, poised to prevent cancer in thousands of people.
The University is one of several institutions in
whose laboratories work on an HPV vaccine blossomed.
Rochester's contribution is recognized with a patent
issued by the European Patent Office and by royalty agreements with the
companies commercializing the vaccine.
The research project in Rochester began with an
effort to develop a blood test to detect infection by a class of viruses known
as human papillom aviruses or HPV, which cause warts as well as cervical cancer.
To do so, the researchers needed large amounts of
papillomavirus -- and while there are plenty of warts in this world, finding
people willing to collect and analyze them is quite a different story. So as a
starting point the team turned to bovine papillomavirus or BPV in cows, and
Bonnez found himself visiting veterinarians and others with access to cows with
warts, seeking samples.
A few years into the project, the scientists faced
difficulty improving their blood test using BPV, so they scrapped the cow warts
and learned to grow human HPV in the laboratory. Soon after that they discovered
that the three-dimensional outer shell of the virus was crucial to creating an
immune response that could prevent infection.
The new vaccine is given as a series of three shots
administered a few months apart. Most doctors say the vaccine needs to be given
before a person becomes sexually active to do the most good.
In the United States, more than 15,000 people every
day, or about 5.5 million people a year, get sexually transmitted HPV infections
from their partners. About three out of every four sexually active people will
get an HPV infection at some point during their lifetime; in some age groups,
such as sexually active men and women under the age of 30, doctors estimate that
40 percent of people are currently infected.
The Rochester team, based in the Infectious Diseases
Division of the Department of Medicine, makes up one of several laboratories
whose work helped bring about such a vaccine. In addition to pharmaceutical
giant Merck, which received approval from FDA to market its vaccine product,
GlaxoSmithKline also has a product in development. Enditem
(Agencies)
Related:
FDA approves 1st cervical cancer
vaccine
WASHINGTON, June 8 (Xinhua) -- The Food and Drug
Administration(FDA) of the United States on Thursday announced the approval of
Gardasil, the first vaccine developed to prevent cervical cancer.
The vaccine, which also prevents precancerous genital
lesions as well as genital warts due to human papilloma virus (HPV) types 6,11,
16 and 18, has also been approved for use in females aged between nine and 26.
