Virginia Tech researchers are testing a potential vaccine for norovirus.

Virginia Tech researchers are testing a live oral vaccine for norovirus. The vaccine the team is testing is being developed by Indiana University researchers and uses the Rotarix rotavirus vaccine as a platform.

Norovirus is an infectious virus that causes vomiting and diarrhea. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, each year in the United States, on average, norovirus causes 900 deaths, 109,000 hospitalizations, 465,000 emergency room visits, and 19 to 21 million cases of vomiting and diarrhea.

“You hear all the time on the news about norovirus outbreaks in hospitals, nursing homes, and how it shuts down cruise ships and restaurants,” said Lijuan Yun, a professor of virology and immunology at the University of Virginia. – Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech, who is leading the vaccine trial.

Yuan’s lab plans to evaluate the vaccine’s reproducibility, immunogenicity and protective efficacy. Human rotavirus and norovirus infection and diarrhea using gnotobiotic pig models.

“We use a gnotobiotic pig model of human norovirus infection and diarrhea. It is the only laboratory animal model that causes norovirus gastroenteritis similar to that seen in humans,” Yuan said.

VTX News explains about Yuan’s research that the genotobiotic animal is specifically engineered to contain zero germs or bacteria so researchers can better study the effects of bacteria and viruses like rotavirus and norovirus.

Unlike most viruses, norovirus cannot be grown efficiently in cell cultures. Another challenge is to test vaccines in animal models. For example, mice carry murine noroviruses that do not cause the same disease as noroviruses in humans.

The pig model is unique because there are less than 10 gnotobiotic pigs in the country.

Yuan and her laboratory research gnotobiotic pig models of human enterovirus infection and disease, including the immunogenicity of probiotics and evaluation of rotavirus and norovirus vaccines and anti-norovirus biologics.

A pig model of norovirus is testing a vaccine that has the potential to help millions of people.

For more about Yuan’s research, read Sarah Boudreau’s story on the VTx news site.

(To sign up for a free subscription to Food Safety News, Click here.)