M.H.V. Van Regenmortel - Böcker

Viral Vaccines Joseph L. Melnick As with history in general, the history of vaccines needs to be reexamined and updated. My task is to look back to see what has been successful and to look forward to see what remains to be accomplished in the prevention of viral diseases by vaccines. Also, I shall refer to the pertinent material discussed at two recent conferences of the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, on virus vaccines under development and their target populations in the United States (1985b) and in developing countries (1986). These reports, plus a third on Vaccine Supply and Innovation (1985a), should be required reading for all those in both the public and the private sector who have a responsibility or interest in vaccines for the prevention of human disease. It has been through the development and use of vaccines that many viral diseases have been brought under control. The vaccines consist either of infectious living attenu­ ated viruses or of noninfectious killed viruses or subviral antigens. When we look at the record, it is the live vaccines that have given the great successes in controlling diseases around the world. Examples are smallpox, yellow fever, poliomyelitis, measles, mumps, and rubella.

Virus Variability and Impact on Epidemiology and Control of Diseases E. Kurstak and A. Hossain I. INTRODUCTION An important number of virus infections and their epidemic developments demonstrate that ineffec­ tiveness of prevention measures is often due to the mutation rate and variability of viruses (Kurstak et al., 1984, 1987). The new human immunodeficiency retroviruses and old influenza viruses are only one among several examples of virus variation that prevent, or make very difficult. the production of reliable vaccines. It could be stated that the most important factor limiting the effectiveness of vaccines against virus infections is apparently virus variation. Not much is, how­ ever, known about the factors influencing and responsible for the dramatically diverse patterns of virus variability. II. MUTATION RATE AND VARIABILITY OF HUMAN AND ANIMAL VIRUSES Mutation is undoubtedly the primary source of variation, and several reports in the literature suggest that extreme variability of some viruses may be a consequence of an unusually high mutation rate (Holland et al., 1982; Domingo et al., 1985; Smith and Inglis, 1987). The mutation rate of a virus is defined as the probability that during a single replication of the virus genome a particular nucleotide position is altered through substitution, deletion, insertion. or recombination. Different techniques have been utilized to measure virus mutation rates, and these have been noted in the extent of application to different viruses.

Volume 3 is devoted to the latest diagnostic technology for virus diseases, particularly molecular methodologies.

This newest edition to the Laboratory Techniques Series gives current state of the art use of synthetic peptides in molecular biology and practical protocols on how to conjugate peptides, immunize animals with peptides and monitor immune responses to peptides in vitro.

It gives background information on antigenic specificity, prediction of antigenic sites in proteins and applications of peptides in immunology and virology, as probes in diagnosis and as vaccines. The book also describes antigenicity of proteins and methods to localize antigenic sites as well as methods for predicting epitoxes, and gives detailed protocols for peptide-carrier conjugation, immunization with peptides, and peptide immunoassays.

The volume also describes typical use of antipeptide antibodies in molecular and cellular biology as well as the use of peptides in the diagnosis of viral infections and autoimmune diseases, and the use of peptides as potential synthetic vaccines. An excellent edition to an excellent series, available in hardbound and paperback.

This newest edition to the Laboratory Techniques Series gives current state of the art use of synthetic peptides in molecular biology and practical protocols on how to conjugate peptides, immunize animals with peptides and monitor immune responses to peptides in vitro.

It gives background information on antigenic specificity, prediction of antigenic sites in proteins and applications of peptides in immunology and virology, as probes in diagnosis and as vaccines. The book also describes antigenicity of proteins and methods to localize antigenic sites as well as methods for predicting epitoxes, and gives detailed protocols for peptide-carrier conjugation, immunization with peptides, and peptide immunoassays.

The volume also describes typical use of antipeptide antibodies in molecular and cellular biology as well as the use of peptides in the diagnosis of viral infections and autoimmune diseases, and the use of peptides as potential synthetic vaccines. An excellent edition to an excellent series, available in hardbound and paperback.

This volume of the series The Plant Viruses is devoted to viruses with rod-shaped particles belonging to the following four groups: the toba­ moviruses (named after tobacco mosaic virus), the tobraviruses (after to­ bacco rattle), the hordeiviruses (after the latin hordeum in honor of the type member barley stripe mosaic virus), and the not yet officially rec­ ognized furoviruses (fungus-transmitted rod-shaped viruses, Shirako and Brakke, 1984). At present these clusters of plant viruses are called groups instead of genera or families as is customary in other areas of virology. This pe­ culiarity of plant viral taxonomy (Matthews, 1982) is due to the fact that the current Plant Virus Subcommittee of the International Committee of Taxonomy of Viruses is deeply split on what to call the categories or ranks used in virus classification. Some plant virologists believe that the species concept cannot be applied to viruses because this concept, according to them, necessarily involves sexual reproduction and genetic isolation (Milne, 1984; Murant, 1985). This belief no doubt stems from the fact that these authors restrict the use of the term species to biological species. According to them, a collection of similar viral isolates and strains does constitute an individ­ ual virus, i. e. , it is a taxonomy entity separate from other individual viruses.

Volume 3 is devoted to the latest diagnostic technology for virus diseases, particularly molecular methodologies.

Viral Vaccines Joseph L. Melnick As with history in general, the history of vaccines needs to be reexamined and updated. My task is to look back to see what has been successful and to look forward to see what remains to be accomplished in the prevention of viral diseases by vaccines. Also, I shall refer to the pertinent material discussed at two recent conferences of the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, on virus vaccines under development and their target populations in the United States (1985b) and in developing countries (1986). These reports, plus a third on Vaccine Supply and Innovation (1985a), should be required reading for all those in both the public and the private sector who have a responsibility or interest in vaccines for the prevention of human disease. It has been through the development and use of vaccines that many viral diseases have been brought under control. The vaccines consist either of infectious living attenu­ ated viruses or of noninfectious killed viruses or subviral antigens. When we look at the record, it is the live vaccines that have given the great successes in controlling diseases around the world. Examples are smallpox, yellow fever, poliomyelitis, measles, mumps, and rubella.