Research
Raul Andino's research has long focused on poliovirus. Together with Andrew Macadam,Andino redesigned the polio vaccine to enhance its genetic stability and reduce the risk of the virus reverting to a virulent form. [5] [6]
Andino was a key member of the team that developed novel oral polio vaccines (nOPVs) for poliovirus types 1 and 3,building upon their earlier work on nOPV2. These vaccines have been engineered to be more genetically stable and less likely to regain virulence than the original Sabin strains. [7]
His research has expanded to other enteroviruses and host defenses against various RNA viruses. His group has also had a long-standing interest in RNA interference as an antiviral defense,and in the dynamics of viral evolution during infection and transmission.
Andino has warned of a “silent epidemic”of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV) in developed countries where only the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) is used. Because IPV prevents symptomatic disease but does not provide gut immunity,cVDPV can circulate undetected through wastewater. [8] [9] [10]
Andino's recent work has focused on developing a new,more stable version of the oral polio vaccine. By targeting a specific area on the viral genome responsible for reversion to virulence,Andino and his colleagues engineered a strain that requires multiple mutations before reverting to a virulent phenotype. Andino described this approach as "putting the virus in an evolutionary cage." [11]
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