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May 02, 2003

INTERNATIONAL IMMUNIZATION NEWS

"Scientists Study Genetic Profile to Develop a Virus Treatment"

Wall Street Journal (www.wsj.com) (05/02/03); Regalado, Antonio

Researchers at the Genome Sciences Center of the British Columbia Cancer Agency have completed a preliminary study of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus genome, which will be published Friday in the journal Science.  The study is focused on understanding the genome in hopes of developing treatments, vaccines, and diagnostic tests for the illness. Identifying the source of SARS by studying animals in southeast China is the next step.  In the same way that HIV treatments were discovered, researchers are identifying the SARS virus proteins and working to find molecules to interfere with them.  The researchers noted that no trend currently exists showing the SARS virus having the ability to quickly mutate, as originally thought.

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