National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi-110067, India.
Abstracts of the papers presented at the International Conference of Indian Virological Society on “Emerging and Re-emerging viral Diseases of the Tropics and Subtropics” at Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India, December 11–14, 2007.
Japanese encephalitis (JE), commonly known as brain fever is caused by a flavivirus named Japanese encephalitis virus, which is transmitted to human beings by mosquitoes. The disease appears mostly in the epidemic form that is being reported regularly from various parts of India. A mouse brain-derived, formalin-inactivated JEV vaccine is commercially available which induces protective immunity of uncertain duration in the recipients. Besides, the vaccine has certain side effects and is expensive. We have developed a number of JE vaccine candidates that are at various stages of development. Technology for a tissue culture derived JE vaccine has been transferred to industry. A recombinant adenovirus based JE vaccine has shown great potential in mice and soon we plan to test its efficacy in human. Results of these studies and others will be presented in the talk.
