葛兰素禽流感疫苗显示广泛的交叉保护作用

HONG KONG (Reuters) Mar 03 - A vaccine designed by GlaxoSmithKline to protect people against the H5N1 bird flu may be effective in warding off a few different sub-types of the virus, the company said on Sunday.
香港（路透社）- 葛兰素设计的旨在保护人们免于H5N1禽流感病毒感染的疫苗或许可以有效的防御该病毒的几个亚型，该公司在周日报道。
In an Asian clinical trial involving 1,206 adults in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand, the vaccine produced antibodies that not only neutralised the H5N1 virus found in Vietnam, but also the variant now dogging Indonesia.
在一项包括了香港、新加坡、台湾、泰国1206名成人的临床试验中，疫苗产生的抗体不仅可以消灭在越南发现的H5N1病毒，也对在印尼传播的变种有效。
\"The vaccine was made using the Vietnam strain. In principle, there is a very broad antibody reactivity that's being induced. These are neutralising antibodies and they do correlate with protection,\" Albert Osterhaus, head of virology at the Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands, told Reuters when asked for comments about the study.
“该疫苗是从越南的病毒株研制的。机理上，该病毒诱导时可产生非常广泛的抗体活性。这些中性抗体的确与保护功能相关，”Albert Osterhaus，荷兰Erasmus医疗中心病毒学主任，在评论这项研究时向路透社说。
Osterhaus was not involved in the study, but is familiar with the results and methodology.
Osterhaus并没有参与该研究，但很熟悉研究结果和方法。
An earlier GSK study in Europe showed the vaccine to be effective in protecting against two other H5N1 subtypes, in China's central eastern province of Anhui and Turkey.
早期在欧洲的研究也表明，疫苗可有效的防御两种H5N1病毒亚型，在中国的安徽和土耳其。
For years now, experts have warned a flu pandemic was long overdue and many have held up the H5N1 virus as a prime candidate because people have no immunity against this bird virus, and because of the high mortality rate associated with it so far.
数年来，专家一直警告会爆发流感，很多人把H5N1病毒当作主要的嫌疑元凶，因为人们没有对该禽流感病毒的免疫力，而且该病毒的死亡率很高。
The virus has infected 368 people in 14 countries since 2003 and killed 234 of them, or 64 percent.
自从2003年，该病毒已感染了14个国家的368个病人，234人死亡，占64%。
An eventual vaccine to protect people against a flu pandemic can only be made 4-6 months after the start of such a disaster, when the culprit virus strain has been identified.
能保护人们抵抗流感的疫苗只能在灾难发生4-6月后制备出来，在病毒株得到鉴定后。
But human populations still need some form of protection in those initial months of a pandemic and drug companies are in a race to design what are known as \"prepandemic\" vaccines.
但流感爆发的前几个月人类还是需要一些保护措施，制药公司争先研制全效的疫苗。
GSK's prepandemic vaccine uses a very low dose, 3.8 micrograms, of antigen. Antigens are substances like toxins, viruses and bacteria that stimulate the production of antibodies when introduced into the body.
葛兰索的疫苗采用低浓度的抗原，3.8mg。抗原是诸如毒素、病毒和微生物的物质，引入体内可以诱发抗体产生。
But they can be difficult to culture and scientists have been trying to fix that by using boosters, or adjuvants.
但这些抗原很难培养，研究人员正努力解决这个问题，通过使用增强剂或佐剂。
Volunteers in the GSK trial received two shots of the adjuvanted vaccine 21 days apart, and blood tests done three weeks after the second shot showed the presence of antibodies which neutralised the Vietnam and Indonesian H5N1 strains.
葛兰素临床试验中的志愿者使用了两次带佐剂的疫苗，间隔21天。接注第二次疫苗三周后，血液测试表明产生了灭活越南和印尼H5N1病毒株的抗体。
Osterhaus, however, voiced a note of caution -- that the pandemic may be triggered by a completely different virus.
然而，Osterhaus 也提醒说-可能流感大爆发会由一种完全不同的病毒引起。
\"We are all scared of H5, but we should realise that other (viruses) are also a threat and the thing with flu is we have to expect the unexpected,\" he said.
“我们都害怕H5病毒，但我们也应该认识到其他的病毒也是威胁，病毒相关的事情是我们很难预料的。”
\"Separate stockpiling of antigen and adjuvant, that is quite an interesting option,\" he added.
“分别存放抗原和佐剂是一个很有意思的选择，”他补充道
With such a plan, adjuvants will then be mixed with the antigen of whatever virus emerges as the pandemic strain.
这么规划的话，佐剂可以与任何引发流感爆发的病毒的抗原混合。