Zeitschrift für Infektionskrankheiten und Präventivmedizin
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Molecular Biological Techniques and Genome Sequencing/Bioinformatics Analyses Converge To Identify RNA Secondary Structures in the Genome of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus Essential for Replication

Martin D Ryan * , Garry A Lu

Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus (FMDV) causes perennial infections of both domestic and wild cloven-hoofed animals around the globe causing severe economic damage and restrictions on World trade. Economies of the developing World are disproportionally affected by FMDV outbreaks. Present FMDV vaccines are ‘killed’: large quantities of highly virulent virus are grown in bulk, particles purified, then chemically inactivated. This requires expensive, high- containment, production facilities with attendant risks of breaches in biosecurity. The RNA structures we, and others, have identified could be partially weakened, or destabilised, rather than be completely disrupted, to produce attenuated FMDV strains. These could serve to either (i) enhance the biosecurity of conventional inactivated vaccine production methods, or, (ii) serve as a basis for the rational design of a new generation of live-attenuated vaccines.