Infectious Disease

Indica Labs / Infectious Disease

CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing of hepatitis B virus in chronically infected humanized mice

Daniel Stone,et al, Molecular Therapy Methods & Clinical Development, 2021
Hepatitis B leads to over 850,000 deaths annually due to complications from chronic infection including cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. While antiviral drugs successfully reduce viral loads in patients, a cure does not yet exist. This study out of the Jerome laboratory at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center performed in vivo gene editing utilizing a mouse model for chronic HBV infections and demonstrated a proof-of-concept of safe and effective...

Ad26 vaccine protects against SARS-CoV-2 severe clinical disease in hamsters

Lisa H Tostanoski, et al, Nature Medicine, 2020
In this study led by researchers at Harvard Medical School, they report the first demonstration of prevention of severe clinical disease in a hamster model of SARS-CoV-2 that were provided with a single immunization of the adenovirus serotype 26 (Ad26) vaccine. The Ad26 vaccine utilizes a stabilized spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 and in the United States this vaccine is commonly known as the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. This study,...