ASU researcher seeks safer smallpox vaccine
Kerry Fehr-Snyder
The Arizona Republic
Feb. 9, 2003 12:00 AM
James Jancovich became the poster child for smallpox vaccine
safety the minute he received the controversial injection.
No, the 31-year-old Arizona State University student didn't come
down with a life-threatening illness as infants, cancer patients,
organ transplant recipients, HIV individuals and those with the some
skin conditions often do.
But the otherwise healthy, burly man developed a fever, chills
and a swollen, itchy, pus-filled blister that covered his biceps and
grossed out his roommate so much he refused to look at it.
"They called it a robust reaction," Jancovich said of the
diagnosis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But to Jancovich and his boss, ASU microbiology Professor Bert
Jacobs, the reaction proved why a safe smallpox vaccine is needed.
"You take one look at James' arm and you say, 'Now I know why
we're doing what we're doing,' " Jacobs said.
For the past 15 years, Jacobs has been using gene splicing to
engineer a safer vaccine. His work is getting more notice now that
the long-beaten disease has surfaced on bioterrorism lists.
Half a million health care workers around the country have been
weighing whether they want to volunteer to take the vaccine; many
more military personnel are being required to get it.
It is not recommended for the general public.
Arizona's Department of Health Services has received 500 doses
for front-line doctors, nurses and public health workers. So far,
the state hasn't begun vaccinating anyone because no cases have been
reported, and liability and workers' compensation issues haven't
been worked out.
"We feel there's no urgency," said Catherine Eden, DHS director.
Nationally, only about 400 health care workers have received the
vaccine.
Meanwhile, several hospitals, including the parent company of
Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center and Phoenix Children's
Hospital, are opting out of the program.
But for Jancovich and a dozen other student researchers who work
in Jacobs' lab, vaccination seemed like a good idea.
The risk of working with the vaccinia virus, which is used to
ward off smallpox, was seen as greater because it can create
blindness if it comes in contact with the eye.
"I was not afraid of it," Jancovich said.
Doctors at the ASU student health center assured Jancovich he'd
be fine.
But almost immediately his arm swelled and he began feeling ill.
Within nine days of receiving the shot on Jan. 10, Jancovich began
feeling so sick he couldn't go to work. Three other lab workers were
vaccinated at the same time, but only one developed similar flulike
symptoms.
Over the past two years, about a dozen of Jacobs' lab workers
have been vaccinated.
As Jancovich's arm continued to balloon and he began feeling more
"blah," Jacobs urged him to call his doctor.
In turn, his doctor contacted the CDC and learned Jancovich's
reaction didn't warrant medical attention. But that affirmed Jacobs'
other research effort: developing a vaccine with side effects that
can be treated with a common antibiotic.
Jacobs recently submitted a grant proposal to the National
Institutes of Health requesting research money to develop a vaccinia
virus that's sensitive to tetracycline.
Eventually, Jacobs hopes to engineer other mutated vaccinia
viruses to ward off smallpox and anthrax with a single injection.
"You can put any gene you want in (the mutated vaccinia virus),"
Jacobs said, adding that the work could someday lead to a vaccine
against HIV, valley fever and some cancers.
Right now, Jacobs' engineered smallpox vaccine has been shown to
work in mice. It'll be at least three years before it can be tested
on chimps and four years for humans.
That work likely wouldn't be done at ASU because other research
centers are more experienced in complex mammal vaccine studies.
Any improvement in the vaccine would be welcomed by Jancovich,
who still bears a nickel-size scab that oozes pus in the morning on
his upper arm. He keeps it covered with gauze so he doesn't spread
the virus to others.
"I'm a healthy male," he said. "I figured I'd have no problems
with (the vaccine)."
       
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