Pitt researchers using grant to find cures for viruses from mosquitoes

There's no cure for a variety of mosquito-borne viruses that Department of Defense officials fear could someday be developed into bioterrorism agents.

“If someone would ever spread a virus via an aerosol, either on a small scale or a large scale, it would cause anything from a mass debilitation of people who are really sick to actual mass mortality,” William Klimstra, a University of Pittsburgh associate professor of microbiology and molecular genetics, said Wednesday. “We could be vulnerable.”

It's that concern that helped lead the way for Klimstra and a group of scientists at Pitt's high-security Center for Vaccine Research to receive $4 million in five federal grants to study a group of mosquito viruses in efforts to develop vaccines and therapies. Scientists from Pitt's Center for Biological Imaging and Regional Biocontainment Laboratory are assisting.

The start of the studies coincides with calls this week by the World Health Organization and others for wider international cooperation to avoid the spread of animal diseases that could be used as biological weapons. Public health experts say 60 percent of human diseases come from animal agents, and 80 percent of the agents that could be used for bioterrorism originate from animals.

During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union developed a mosquito-borne virus into a biological weapon that was never used, Klimstra said.

“The technology absolutely is out there for the utilization of that,” he said. “The funding agencies that are behind this want things on the shelf that they can pull off in case there is an emergence that is unexpected. Right now, there is nothing on the shelf.”

Klimstra and his wife, Kate Ryman, also an associate Pitt professor, hope their research contains the spread of diseases such as eastern equine encephalitis virus. Known by experts as “Triple E,” the virus kills half the people it infects. It is transmitted by the bite of a mosquito and causes an infection that leads to fever, chills and other symptoms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

And while the virus — found mainly on the East Coast and Gulf States — remains rare, Ryman offered this blunt assessment Wednesday: “We would be in the same position as the Ebola situation, if this were to break out,” she said. “There are no licensed vaccines. Think about it this way: With Ebola, you can quarantine the person who's got it and pretty much control that outbreak. You cannot quarantine mosquitoes. If these viruses get into a mosquito population, you have it endemically. Having a vaccine is the way that major diseases have been reduced to manageable proportions — that's what we will be working toward.”

Of the $4 million in grants, about $850,000 will be used to study “Triple E,” specifically its genetic coding and various ways to develop a live vaccine. About $1 million will be used to study how various encephalitic viruses and another mosquito-borne virus, known as Rift Valley fever virus, enter the brain.

Joseph Conlon, a retired Navy entomologist who worked in Asia, Africa and South America, has a friend whose 5-year-old daughter died from a mosquito virus — resulting from a bite — eight years ago.

“I can't even express how devastating it was,” said Conlon, who is technical adviser of the American Mosquito Control Association, a New Jersey-based nonprofit dedicated to mosquito suppression. “I know some of these viruses are currently pretty rare, but any grant money for research, in my mind, is overdue and money well spent.”

Conlon said he's pleased that Pitt researchers also are studying Rift Valley fever virus.

“If that one ever gets to the United States, we will be in a big world of hurt,” he said. “Rift Valley not only affects humans; it has the potential to wipe out the cattle industry within a couple of years. That would have significant and lasting economic impact.”

Ryman said developing a vaccine or antiviral agent to combat a biological warfare adaptation of the virus will protect people against natural mosquito-borne viruses.

“When we're working on the hardest situations, aerosol infections, we are at the same time developing great candidates for the natural event of emergence of the viruses,” she said.

“There's the issue of getting the thing to the stage of being on the shelves. And then there's taking it off the shelves and actually putting it into humans, after going through clinical trials. This also potentially could be fast-tracked.”

Reuters contributed to this report. Ben Schmitt is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-320-7991 or bschmitt@tribweb.com.