PRIOVAX: Vaccination against prion disease

• Research unit: EU RFP
• Project number: 02.0432

Key words (English)

Life Sciences; Medicine; Health; Safety; Scientific Research; Social Aspects

Alternative project number (English)

EU project number: QLK2-CT-2002-81399

Research programs (English)

EU-programme: 5. Frame Research Programme - 1.1.2 Control of infectious diseases

Short description (English)

See abstract

Abstract (English)

Based on prevention of prion disease by trasgenic anti-prion protein (PrP) antibody expression in mice, we propose to develop a vaccine to actively induceati-prion immunity in mice. For this purpose, immunological self-tolerance against PrP will be analysed. On that basis recombinant virus vaccines will be developed to explore immunological intervention strategies. The consortium consists of 4 research groups converting different fields of expertise, e.g.immunology, prion biology, antibody engineering, and recombinant virus technology. The studies will involve advanced technologies to develop new gene targeted mouse models, to establish recombinant Rhabdovirus vaccines, and to optimise anti-PrPantibodies. The results of these studies will explore the feasibility of prion vaccination in mice and will open future perspectives for developing scrapievaccines for animals and humans.

References in databases (English)

Swiss Database: Euro-DB of the
State Secretariat for Education and Research
Hallwylstrasse 4
CH-3003 Berne, Switzerland
Tel. [phone]
Swiss Project-Number: 02.0432