The study, led by David Relman, M.D., of Stanford University, is now online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The research was funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.
"In light of today's concerns about bioterror attacks, we have an urgent need to know as much as possible about the workings of the smallpox virus and other bioterror agents," says Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of NIAID. "This new research fills in some of the gaps in our understanding of smallpox. Now we are better positioned to speed the development of protective measures."
Related research, also published online in PNAS this week, set the stage for Dr. Relman's smallpox study. In this work, researchers at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Stanford University, show that cynomolgus macaque monkeys exposed to smallpox virus can develop a disease similar to human smallpox. Previously, scientists thought it impossible for the smallpox virus to sicken any species other than humans.
Following on that discovery, Dr. Relman and a separate team of researchers did molecular-level analysis of how the smallpox infection altered gene expression patterns in the monkeys' blood cells. Dr. Relman used DNA microarrays, a tool unavailable in 1977 when naturally occurring smallpox was eradicated after a global vaccination campaign. Microarray analysis research reveals how smallpox alters gene activity in host cells under attack by the virus. It
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Contact: Linda Joy
ljoy@niaid.nih.gov
301-402-1663
NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
12-Oct-2004