Imagine a scenario in which a dangerous new virus is detected in Chimpanzees. To prevent the spread of this virus to humans, biologists decided to give a vaccine to scores of wild Chimpanzees. The chimp is no longer a threat to humans.
Scientists warn in a new Policy Forum that the solution sounds too good to be true. Filippa Lentzos from King's College London is one of the authors who wrote about the dangers of self-spreading vaccines.
The authors argue that this is more than just their opinion. They write that it is an evidence-based norm that has been around for decades. The report says that the result is an increased potential for risky research on lab-modified self-spreading viruses. The scientists argue that this could lead to a normalization of the concept and eventual real-world use.
Despite a lack of new information, self-spreading vaccine research continues despite long-standing evidence-based norms in vaccine development, international law, public health, risk assessment, and other disciplines.
The idea of vaccines spreading like a disease is powerful. They could be used to protect animals from diseases and to prevent them from carrying diseases to humans. In 2020, biologists Scott Nuismer and James Bull wrote a paper about self-disseminating vaccines to suppress zoonoses. Scientists mean a virus that has been artificially modified to perform a desired function while retaining its ability to spread between hosts.
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By using the power of viruses, scientists could create biological agents that can be spread quickly through a target population, with the viruses performing specific tasks, such as delivering vaccines or sterilizing invaders. Australian researchers used lab-modified, contagious viruses in the 1980's to kill animals.
This strategy could be used to spread vaccines among humans.
The European Union, the U.S. National Institutes of Health, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency all run programs to explore this technology.
Lentzos, Reeves, and colleagues say it is time to consider the consequences of this research and all the moving parts needed to make such a thing work. They argue that it is not clear if self-disseminating viruses can be contained or removed from an environment, or who would be responsible for the biocontrol agent.
The idea of modifying the viruses to have short lifespans or be made incapable of mutating is being advocated by advocates.
The scientists say it's difficult to imagine how much effort would be needed to develop and test self-spreading vaccines, since the vast majority of virus species that currently exist are un described by science. They say that the task is more difficult due to the fact that the viruses are constantly changing.
The authors call for various safeguards, cost-benefit analyses, and measures such as regulatory oversight. This would involve a concerted, global governance effort. National governments should update their legislation and guidelines, while developers and funders of this research should articulate comprehensive and credible regulatory paths through which they believe the safety and efficacy of self-spreading approaches could be established, according to the essay.
The authors of the new report raise several valid points, and Bull agrees that public acceptance is also essential.
We will have little evidence on which to base estimated risks and benefits until we conduct preliminary studies of transmissible vaccines. It is expected that early papers on transmissible vaccines explore the theoretical possibilities, many of which will never be practical or safe.
Bull recommended conservative approaches, such as creating a vaccine from a benign virus that already exists in a target population, as opposed to modifying an otherwise harmful virus, in order to move ahead cautiously. Gene drives, a related technology in which modified organisms engineer an entire species, could also help. Bull argued that investment in laboratory studies of transmissible vaccines will lead to methods that mitigate risks, just as the developers of gene drive have responded to regulatory concerns and have invented new designs with limited potential for spread.
Technical issues, safety concerns, and lack of public acceptance are some of the reasons why the idea of transmissible vaccines might die on the vine. Dedicated research attention is needed since the potential benefits are immense.
Genetically Engineering Nature will be more complicated than we thought.
