Irusta Contributes to Nature Medicine Article

Pablo Irusta, assistant professor of human science at NHS, has contributed to a recent article in Nature Medicine about respiratory syncytial virus.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, RSV is the most common cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia among infants and children under 1 year of age.

The research—led by scientists at Johns Hopkins Children's Center—uncovered why a 1966 vaccine used to inoculate children against infection instead caused severe respiratory disease. Efforts to make another one essentially stopped. Currently, there is no vaccine against the illness.

The findings, which were reported in the January 2009 issue of the prestigious journal, could jumpstart work on "effective killed-virus vaccines" for RSV and other respiratory viruses, according to a press release distributed by Johns Hopkins.

The article, the release notes, "also debunks a popular theory that the 1966 vaccine was ineffective because the formalin used to inactivate the virus disrupted critical antigens, the substances that stimulate the production of protective antibodies."

The researchers said, "the problem occurred when the antibodies created by the vaccine failed to successfully bind to the real virus after exposure to it, thereby incapacitating it."

Irusta, one of the senior authors of the article, collaborates closely with senior investigator Fernando Polack, an infectious disease specialist at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center"

"We have found the key reason why the old vaccine did not work," Irusta said. "Therefore, this research opens the possibility to make safe and effective RSV vaccines in the future."

The research team found that the 1966 vaccine failed to activate a critical signaling pathway—called toll-like receptor—that helps the immune system recognize and fight a virus.

Aside from his RSV laboratory work with the Johns Hopkins team, Irusta also extends his research to undergraduate students at Georgetown.

Currently, he directs an annual translational health science internship in Argentina for undergraduates who wish to learn about RSV and others illnesses from a lab and a clinical perspective.