Assessment of Future Scientific Needs for Live Variola Virus (1999) / Chapter Skim
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12 Summary and Conclusions
12 Summary and Conclusions
Pages 79-86
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From page 79... ...
Known tissue collections containing live variola virus material were subsequently consolidated in two international repositories in the United States and Russia. Scientific research on live variola virus requires maximum containment fa cilities.
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From page 80... ...
In preparation for international deliberations concerning whether all variola virus stocks, stored clinical materials containing variola virus, and live variola virus genome DNA held in the international repositories are to be destroyed, this committee was asked to assess future scientific needs for live variola virus. The committee was not asked to make a recommendation about destruction or retention of variola virus stocks, and such a determination involves information beyond the purview of the committee.
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From page 81... ...
For these reasons, the committee expresses its findings and conclusions below in conditional form: If particular knowledge or capability were to be pursued, would the associated research require live variola virus? The committee identified six potential areas of research that could require the use of variola virus, and then evaluated for each area whether live virus would be needed for that purpose.
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From page 82... ...
Yet other steps in this testing would require the use of live variola virus and recently isolated human cells since measurement of tissue culture activity using other orthopoxviruses or replication-defective forms of variola virus and genetically engineered cell lines could yield misleading results. Finally, private enterprise has little incentive to undertake Me development arid testing of agents for smallpox prevention and prophylaxis.
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From page 83... ...
Live variola virus would be required only for testing of novel vaccine development strategies using materials other than live vaccinia virus, such as a DNA vaccine expressing selected variola genes. The above-noted concern about the safety of using vaccinia virus vaccine in populations with high levels of HIV infection or other immunosuppressive conditions is the reason for developing nonstandard vaccines.
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From page 84... ...
An adequate database of the abundance and molecular interactions of variola virus surface proteins would enable reasonable comparisons. Despite residual uncertainty as to whether a surface protein-based detection strategy would work for variola once a sufficient number of variola genomes had been cloned and sequenced and their surface proteins analyzed, the use of live variola virus would not add information worth the risk of exposure to live virus.
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From page 85... ...
Thus, it is possible that variola virus could serve as a resource for the discovery of human-specific reagents, including such diverse examples as cytokine inhibitors, anti-inflammatory proteins, and regulators of apoptosis. Finally, the fixture scientific needs for live variola virus must be assessed in light of the knowledge that might be derived from studies of other orthopoxviruses, variola virus DNA clones, orthopoxvirus with one or more variola genes, replication-defective variola virus, live variola virus in tissue culture, and live variola virus in animal models.
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