Question

Even though RSV infection in infants is common, a vaccine does not currently exist. Imagine you are designing a recombinant vaccine for RSV--what viral components would you use in your vaccine? Justify your choice.

Answer 1

Explanation:

RSV is caused by a group of paramyxoviruses and belong to the group of pneumoviruses. It has two prevalent strains RSV-A and RSV-B.

To test RSV antigen in the sample we can use immunofluorescence test (IFT). IFT is a method used to identify pathogen specific antigen or antibody in sample collected from patient using fluorescence. A fluorochrome protein molecule is used to do this. Depending upon the material used and dye fluorochrome releases energy which results in fluorescence.

In this method sample collected from patient is applied on the plate and antibodies specific to the antigen are added into the plates with antigen. The antibodies used are labeled with fluorochrome to give fluorescence.

2. As viruses genetic material is prone to errors it is difficult to create a vaccine against viruses. RSV has RNA as genome and it has highly conserved lipoprotein which functions as antigen. This lipoprotein sequence is highly conserved in all the strains of the viruses. I would prefer to use this lipoprotein present in the membrane of virus for vaccine research