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Vaccination
is the most efficient and cost effective way to
protect people against infectious diseases. Edward
Jenner (1797) laid the basis for vaccinology by
infecting a child with the fluid from the nodules
caused by the cow pox to protect it against
smallpox, a disease which has been eradicated since
1997. Another milestone was the development of
tissue culture technology by J.F. Enders and
colleagues in 1949. Tissue culture technology
greatly facilitated the preparation of the live
attenuated polio vaccine, first developed by Salk
and colleagues in the early 1950s. Since then,
dozen of viral vaccines have been produced
commercially, using animal cell culture
technology.
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Vaccines
produced with animal cell technology include
rabies, polio, hepatitis A and B, measles, mumps,
rubella, varicella zoster, tick bone encephalitis,
Japanese encephalitis and adenoviral disease.
Worldwide eradication of poliomyelitis is foreseen
for the year 2000 and its validation in 2003.
Animal cell culture has also been extensively used
for the production of veterinary vaccines for small
and big animals, inclusing foot and mouth disease,
Aujezsky's disease, Marek's disease, dog parvovirus
and bovine viral diseases
Apart from the yellow fever and the influenza
vaccines which are produced in eggs, all the above
mentioned vaccines are produced by the
multiplication of the corresponding virus either in
primary cell lines (e.g. PMKC, CEF), in cell
strains (e.g. MRC5, FRHL-2, wistar 38) on in
continuous cell lines (e.g. Vero, MDCK, ACMK and
CHO).
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In
addition to cells derived from mammalian tissue,
work is in progress to use cell lines derived from
the fruit fly (Drosophila) and from other insects
(e.g. a baculovirus/insect cell line (SF-9)).
Currently, these cell lines are used in R&D to
produce the new viral or parasitic vaccines of the
future.
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With
transdisease vaccinology, safer and/or more
efficient vaccines can be developed. Using a single
genetically engineered vaccine such as recombinant
viruses or DNA vaccines, simultaneous immunization
against several diseases may be delivered. With DNA
vaccines, the distinction between vaccines and gene
therapy is dwindling.
A bright future for human and animal health is thus
foreseen thanks to animal cell technology. And not
the least, the worldwide eradication of
poliomyelitis foreseen in the year 2000 and its
validation in 2003.
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Vaccines
produced with animal cell technology