Chikungunya test vaccine shows promise<p><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/chikungunya-test-vaccine-shows-promise-232344064.html"><img src="http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/dcA_26dqd9kDqzloYaHhhw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTg2O3E9NzU7dz0xMzA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/afp.com/3f3dac119dade2dac61317c3bbf337f400606e95.jpg" width="130" height="86" alt="A scientist examines tiger mosquitos on August 9, 2012, in Montpellier, southern France" align="left" title="A scientist examines tiger mosquitos on August 9, 2012, in Montpellier, southern France" border="0" /></a>A candidate vaccine against the joint disease chikungunya, endemic to Africa and south Asia but moving north- and westward, showed promise by provoking an immune response in human trials, its developers said Friday. The trial drug is made with nanoparticles that resemble a West African strain of the virus, which causes high fever and intensely painful arthritis, said a study in The Lancet medical journal. These virus-like particles (VLPs) are meant to mimic the immune-stimulating effects of the actual virus particles, but cannot cause disease as they contain no viral DNA. "All injections were well tolerated, with no serious adverse events reported," wrote the authors of the study conducted in 25 healthy human volunteers from the United States, aged 18 to 50.</p><br clear="all"/>
Source: Chikungunya test vaccine shows promise (http://news.yahoo.com/chikungunya-test-vaccine-shows-promise-232344064.html)