Zika Replicon System to boost Zika Vaccine development

Zika Replicon System to boost Zika Vaccine development.  Researchers from University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston,Texas in collaboration with Southwest University in Chongqing, China, and the University of Leuven in Belgium created a tool for studying the Zika virus. The tool named “Zika Replicon System” creates a versions of the Zika virus that are stripped of genes (Simpler

form of Zika virus) that make them less infectious from the original virus, so that researchers can work safely.

Replicons are those part of genes that can replicate on their own. The new Zika replicon system has deleted some of the genes that give the virus its structure. Hence making it less dangerous.

iii. The Replicon System has been described by the team in the journal named EBioMedicine and it will be useful for vaccine development of Zika virus.

iv. Zika virus (ZIKV) is a member of the virus family Flaviviridae and the Flavivirus genus. The virus gets its name from Zika Forest of Uganda where the virus was first isolated in 1947.