Projects funded by the Research Fund for the Control of Infectious Diseases.

This project aimed to test a new vaccine technology platform using an adenovirus vector to produce a recombinant vaccine against severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) infection. A recombinant adenovirus (rAd) encoding SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV) nucleocapsid protein (rAd-N) was constructed, and the ability of the rAd-N to induce anti–SARS-CoV N antibody production and cellular immune responses was evaluated. Evidence from human gene therapy and vaccine trials has established a good safety record for Ad5and Ad2-based vectors. Both vectors are safe when administered by intramuscular and intradermal injection, as well as via intranasal inhalation, which may be a particularly important means of inducing mucosal immunity to respiratory infectious diseases such as SARS. Recently, exciting results from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) vaccine research into an adenovirus type 5 (Ad 5) vector have emerged from primate and human clinical trials.