The virologist PVM Suresh Mittal targets viruses, including avian flu and other problematic respiratory diseases
You fight the fire with the fire. And expert in veterinarian for veterinary medicine Purdue Suresh Mittal fights viruses with viruses.
Using innovative techniques, Dr MittalDistinguished professor of virology in the department of the college of veterinary medicine of Comparative pathobiologyDevelops new vaccines for viral infections, including avian flu.
“Flu viruses affect millions of people each year and kill hundreds of thousands,” said Dr. Mittal. “Vaccines are one of the most effective tools we have against flu and other respiratory infections.”
Virus prevention is easier, safer, cheaper and more efficient than fighting them. The flu vaccine is safe, effective and widely available but must be updated each year, which is expensive and can be difficult for some people, logistically or financially.
No effective vaccine still exists for the avian flu virus which appeared in 2022 and continues to affect the expanses of the globe, including cows in the United States, chickens, turkeys, ducks and wild mammals. Dr. Mittal works to change this technique which has proven to be promising with other diseases.
Viral
Dr. Mittal is a member of Bindley Bioscience Center, member of the Purdue Institute for Cancer Research, member of the Purdue Institute of Inflammation, Immunology and Infectious Disease, and part of the presidential health initiative One de Purdue which implies research at the intersection of human, animal and plant health.
For years, he worked with viruses called adenovirus, using them to create vaccines to prevent viral and other infections. The funding agencies of this work include the National Institutes of Health, the United States Department of Agriculture and the Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research. Dr. Mittal has disclosed numerous innovations at the Purdue Innovates Office of Technology Marketing, which requested patents and received patents to protect intellectual property.
Dr. Mittal strips adenoviruses – small viruses with well -studied genomes – of their pathogenic parties and replaces these bits with keys that teach immune systems to fight and build immunity to viruses and other pathogens.
It works as a set of universal sockets. Once an engineer develops the handle and the nucleus and the stem, a wide range of sizes and shapes settles there. And if a new form of boulon or bizarre hexadecimal presented itself tomorrow, the engineers could quickly create a new plug to adapt to the existing ratchet without having to create a brand new tool.
The path to the heart is through adenoids
Adenoviruses generally affect birds and mammals. In humans, they generally cause slight symptoms of colds or gastrointestinal upheavals. Their name comes from their initial discovery, in the middle of the 20th century, in the human adenoid glands, which are between the fight and the tonsils.
The genomes of adenoviruses are small, well studied, well understood and relatively easy to handle for scientists. To create vaccines to adenovirus, Dr. Mittal and other scientists isolate a selected adenovirus and modify it so that it cannot be replicated or causing a disease. Rather than wearing an antigenic series of genes to make a sick host, an adenovirus vaccine carries a modified gene copy of the target virus or bacteria.
Due to their in -depth understanding and their familiarity with the genomes of adenoviruses, scientists can strip him of his ability to reproduce inside the host’s body, which means that it is introduced as a vaccine, teaches the host’s immune cells to recognize the pathogen and how to fight it, then extinguish naturally, leaving no adenovirus. No one receives an adenoviral disease from an adenovirus vaccine. The virus is the tools that scientists eat to train people ‘immune systems and keep them healthy.
The advantage is that it naturally forms the host’s immune system to recognize, neutralize and fight viruses or bacteria. Adenovirus vaccines stimulate both the innate and adaptive immunity of the host – which means that it gives both rapid and sustainable action immunity to the virus or targeted bacteria.
Adenoviral vaccines are cheaper to produce and easier to transport than many other vaccines just as effective. Laboratories and factories are already set up to produce these adenoviruses, which means that if a new pandemic occurs, the response time to create a safe, efficient and accessible vaccine would be much shorter. They would not have to start from scratch.
“This vaccine that we are developing is only the delivery system,” said Dr. Mittal. “Suppose that we have had a new virus today, then as soon as the sequence of the genome of the new agent is available, which only takes only one day, we can compare the sequence with other related viruses. Then we will know what are the best immunogens for the target vaccine for this specific virus. And then we can synthesize these genes, and, in the two or three weeks, we can develop a vaccine safely and effective – large quantities. »»
What is good for goose is good for … everyone
The idea is not alone from Dr. Mittal. Other laboratories and scientists work on similar ideas. In fact, some of the most successful vaccines are based on the basis of adenovirals. Much of Europe, Africa and India – billions of people – have been successfully vaccinated against COVVID with adenovirus vaccines. Other vaccines are also in preparation.
However, Dr. Mittal and his laboratory discovered a unique peptide whose presence improves the response of T cells, a type of white blood cells and part of the body’s immune system. Their adenovirus conscripts the autophagy process of host cells for the development of improved immune responses against the vaccine.
Dr. Mittal and his team hope to use adenoviruses to combat avian flu, as well as a combined vaccine for all influenza viruses. The final objective is a vaccine against influenza that would be effective for two or three years and against a much wider range of flu – seasonal virus in Avian. And the universality of the adenovirus vaccine means that it would work on a range of vertebrates in addition to humans.
“Because this vector system is so universal, we can use it for any agent and for any host,” said Dr. Mittal. “This can be for horses, for pigs, dogs, cats, livestock or humans. Whatever we need, who we have to protect. “
Adenovirus applications go beyond viral vaccines. Although a large part of Dr. Mittal’s work has involved respiratory diseases – in particular avian flu – it also attacks tuberculosis.
Although tuberculosis has killed more than a million people worldwide in 2024, no effective and widely available vaccine exists. An adenoviral vaccine against tuberculosis would help save millions of lives.
Apart from infectious diseases, adenoviral techniques can be associated with gene therapy to treat cancers – something Dr. Mittal works on breast cancer.