Paramunity-inducing effects of vaccinia strain MVA.

Vaccinia virus MVA is harmless for humans and animals both locally and parenterally. It offers paraspecific activities similar to those of comparable attenuated viruses of other pox genera, e.g. avipox or parapox. At the systemic level, MVA protects baby mice against lethal challenge with vesicular stomatitis virus (dose-response curve). MVA raises phagocytosis and NK-cell activity in humans and animals, whilst encouraging the induction of interferon alpha, interleukin-2 and -12 and colony-stimulating activity at the same time. The paramunity-inducing properties of MVA make it an ideal vector for the insertion of foreign genes. It is superior to other virus vectors because of its complex function. Inactivated MVA is also suitable as an inducer of paramunity.