What Do Hepatitis C and the Flu Have to Do with Saving Fish Farms?

Dr. Ten-Tsao Wong borrowed two small peptides from human viruses – one from Hepatitis C, one from Influenza A – to build a stronger vaccine for farmed fish. Viral disease is among the biggest threats to aquaculture, and existing subunit vaccines, which use just a piece of pathogen, tend to be too weak on their own. When Wong’s team attached the peptides (AH1 and AH3) to a test protein and vaccinated rainbow trout, the fish produced 300 to 1,500 times more antibodies than unmodified vaccines – no genetic modification needed. The next step is testing the peptides on real fish virus proteins, bringing a deployable aquaculture vaccine much closer.

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