Scientists find new way to improve MERS vaccines

Since the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) was identified in 2012, more than 1,800 people have been infected with the virus that causes MERS, and the fatality rate is a concerning 36 percent. There’s still no approved MERS vaccine for humans. However, promising new research reported in Nature Communications may help pave the way for a human vaccine – and give hope for a new era of protection against similar viral infections. The study was led by Fang Li, associate professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Minnesota Medical School, in collaboration with Lanying Du and Shibo Jiang from New York Blood Center; Yusen Zhou from Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology; Chien-Te Tseng from the University of Texas; and Stanley Perlman from the University of Iowa. Professor Li and colleagues identified a region on an existing MERS vaccine that causes the body’s immune system to generate ineffective antibodies, which...