Control of Influenza: Live Vaccine Development

Despite various efforts on improving vaccines and antivirals, influenza epidemics continue to afflict many people, causing widespread morbidity and mortality in the young and the elderly. Since the discovery of the unusual 'cap-stealing'mechanism of transcription, significant advances were made on molecular aspects of influenza gene regulation. This provides new insights for developing new antiviral compounds. Reverse genetic technologies have also been advanced for generating recombinant chimeric viruses suitable for designing live vaccine. (omitted)