An Academia Sinica research team said on Thursday it had developed a protein drug that is effective in identifying and treating dengue fever.
Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne disease that causes severe flu-like symptoms and can be fatal.
Research team leader Wu Han-Chung (吳漢忠) said the newly developed therapeutic antibody, humanized via genetic engineering, is effective in checking dengue virus type 2 and protecting animals from being infected by the virus.
The antibody can also be made into diagnostic reagent kits to allow health institutions to identify what type of dengue virus a patient has, said Wu, professor and vice director at the Institute of Cellular and Organismic Biology at the nation’s top research institution.
Dengue fever, with its potential to trigger dengue shock syndrome and dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF), is a critical public health issue in tropical and sub-tropical climates worldwide, he said.
It is estimated that 50 million to 100 million dengue infections occur each year, with 500,000 cases of DHF and about 20,000 deaths, Wu said.
He said the newly developed antibody was capable of both neutralizing dengue viral infection and protecting mice against becoming infected.
The antibody showed a success rate of 90 percent in a recently completed animal study, but it will take a year before it can enter phase one clinical testing, Wu said.
Earlier this week, the Centers for Disease Control warned that the number of domestic dengue fever cases could exceed 1,000 by the end of this year and urged the public to get rid of standing water, especially around residential areas.
The Centers for Disease Control said the biggest epidemics of dengue fever were in 2002 with 5,000 domestic cases, followed by 2007 with 2,000 cases.
Last year saw 848 cases.
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