News Release

By LESLIE H. LANG
UNC School of Medicine

CHAPEL HILL -- The National Institutes of Health has awarded a $3.5 million research contract for biodefense to Dr. Jeffrey Frelinger, Sarah Graham Kenan professor and chairman of microbiology and immunology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine.

This contract will support research aimed at developing a high-throughput method to rapidly screen and map the molecules used by the immune system’s T-cells to recognize a microbe called Francisella tularensis. This highly infectious bacterium is responsible for the disease tularemia. In nature, F. tularensis is found widely in small animals, especially rodents, rabbits and hares.

High-throughput screening methods combine robotics and specialized laboratory hardware to enable scientists to conduct hundreds of experiments at once. A high-throughput method developed by Frelinger’s brother, Dr. John Frelinger, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Rochester, will be used in this project.

UNC bacteriologist Dr. Tom Kawula, associate professor of microbiology and immunology, also will collaborate on the project.

"While the information produced in this contract will be specific to tularemia, the methodology developed will be immediately applicable to any bacterial or viral disease," said Dr. Jeffrey Frelinger. "The identification of T-cell epitopes will lead to both better diagnostics and the potential of new safe synthetic vaccines."

An epitope is part of a foreign protein that is recognized and targeted by the immune system.

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics indicate that roughly 200 cases of tularemia occur annually in the United States. Also known as "rabbit fever," the disease is not transmitted from person-to-person and most commonly results from contact with infected animals. Infection also may be spread via bites from infected ticks, fleas and other insects, or eating or drinking contaminated food or water.

A summer 2000 outbreak on Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., affected gardeners and golfers who were exposed by lawn mowers running over infected animal remains and spreading the bacteria over a large area of the golf course.

Symptoms include high fever, muscle aches and skin ulcers. People who inhale the bacteria can experience severe respiratory illness, including life-threatening pneumonia and systemic infection. Several types of antibiotics have been effective in treating tularemia infections, including streptomycin and tetracyclines.

If F. tularensis were used as a bioweapon, the CDC has reported, the bacteria would likely be made airborne so they could be inhaled. A vaccine for tularemia was used in the past to protect laboratory workers, but is not currently available.

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Note: Contact Frelinger at (919) 966-2599 or jfrelin@med.unc.edu.

School of Medicine contact: Les Lang, (919) 843-9687 or llang@med.unc.edu