Researchers at ASU’s Biodesign Institute are deciphering the genetic coding of the cowpox virus in hope of creating a better vaccine to combat the smallpox virus.

Kathryn Sykes, a researcher at the Biodesign Institute, said using cowpox as a framework for smallpox and other pox viruses is effective because they share many of the same genes.

Cowpox is a skin disease transmitted to humans through animals.

“It turns out that the cowpox is sort of the mother pox virus from which every pox virus is derived,” Sykes said. “So we went to the mother virus and we figured anything possible that’s useful against smallpox has got to be there.”

The researchers said studies being done on cowpox can be used to treat the entire family of pox viruses that affect a large number of children in the U.S.

“There’s another pox virus [similar to chickenpox] that doesn’t kill you but its children get a rash all over their body. It takes about six months for it to go away,” Sykes said. “That’s another pox virus and that’s rampant. Probably 50 percent of the Arizona elementary kids have been exposed to that virus. It doesn’t kill you, it’s just a chronic annoying rash.”

Joe Caspermere, a spokesman for the Biodesign Institute, said the research techniques used in the cowpox study, where researchers look at individual pieces of the disease or virus, could be used to study many diseases.

Other researchers in the Biodesign Institute were working closely with Sykes to apply her research toward diseases including HIV and ebola, he said.

“You can use the technology to look at any virus, in order to narrow down, and try to identify the essential pieces within the virus and create a vaccine that is more effective against the virus,” Caspermere said.

Sykes said while the smallpox virus has mostly been eradicated, it still exists in freezers “under lock and key,” and poses a potential threat if another country used it as a weapon.

“This is the most feared terrorist agent,” Sykes said. “We’re directly trying to head the bio-threat problem, but we understand that there are these outbreaks in the United States.”

Richard Harth, a Biodesign Institute science writer, said the cowpox research is vital preparation for an emergency, including use as a bio-terror agent or even a natural outbreak, because viruses similar to smallpox still exist in both humans and animals.

The research at ASU is unique in its approach to creating a vaccine by examining the effects of individual proteins within the virus, he said.

“By selecting only the proteins that stimulate a strong immune response you can make a much more effective vaccine,” Harth said.

After examining all the virus’ proteins, researchers found about nine of the 220 proteins are broadly protective against other pox viruses, including smallpox.

“We are not going to make any assumptions about what should work,” Sykes said. “We’re just going to test every single piece and part in a vaccine aspect.”

Sykes credited another researcher, Edward Jenner, for making the connection between cowpox and smallpox hundreds of years ago.

“Jenner recognized that milkmaids never got smallpox. A wave of smallpox would come through, and … everyone would die except the milkmaids,” she said.

Jenner later found the milkmaids had been exposed to the cowpox virus, which left them physically immune to smallpox.

Sykes said while Jenner’s research is valuable, she wanted to take a new approach and focus on the virus’ different parts.

“Instead of using the whole live virus like Jenner did and the people after him did, I’m testing each of the more than 200 proteins that make up that virus to see which piece or part will be recognized by the immune system,” she said.

Researchers discovered early on that traditional vaccines were not effective on a large scale because of wide variety across the human population, Sykes said.

ASU students are getting the opportunity to be a part of this research.

“It’s one of the great strengths of the Biodesign Institute. It’s not
merely a classroom education, students have the opportunity to et involved and get their hands-on real research,” Harth said.

Sykes said the students involved are gaining insight into the practices of modern vaccinology and hopes it will dismiss some of the misconceptions they have about vaccines.

“There’s an unfortunate opinion in the general public that vaccines should be feared,” Sykes said. “It’s perfectly safe, they’re just smart vaccines. We don’t want to be injecting live or whole pathogens into people, that’s what has worked for centuries, but that’s not the way of the world in the future.”

Reach the reporter at michelle.parks@asu.edu.