British university scientists say they have made a scientific breakthrough which could enable vaccination against a common virus which causes misery worldwide.
The Cardiff University Medical School researchers say they are the first to successfully clone the human cytomegalovirus or HCMV.
The virus is a major cause of malformations in babies and poses a deadly risk to people with compromised immune systems, such as transplant patients and people with HIV.
The virus has proved unstable outside the human body – and difficult to undertake laboratory work on.
The success has been reported in the Journal of Clinical Investigation and work on the virus is now under way in laboratories around the world under the supervision of the World Health Organisation.
Researcher Dr Richard Stanton said: "HCMV has by far the largest genome of all viruses affecting humans – consequently it was technically difficult to clone in an intact form in the laboratory.
"Cloning a copy of the virus from a strain isolated by Cardiff Public Health Laboratories has enabled us to identify the genes causing the instability of the virus outside the body.
"Following the identification of these genes, we have successfully developed cells in which we can grow virus that corresponds to that which exists in the human body."
He added: "For the first time our work has enabled us to create an exact copy of the virus outside of the body offering a vital step forward in the development of new treatments."
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