Vaccines for diseases such as AIDS, zika, and ebola using a novel 'plug and play' viral platform has been developed by experts from GeoVax. This vaccine platform delivers single-dose vaccines that fully protect against emerging infectious diseases.
- A new vaccine platform called “Plug and Play” has been developed.
- This vaccine platform offers a single-dose vaccine that protects from AIDS, Zika virus, Ebola and other emerging diseases.
- It is suitable for repeated use.
"A significant unmet medical need exists for vaccine platform technologies to respond rapidly and effectively against biological threats," said Mr. Basu, "Preferably, such platforms should deliver vaccines that are safe and confer full protection after a single dose."
In proof-of-concept studies, the researchers tested three independent vaccines against three different families of viruses. Each vaccine demonstrated full protection after a single dose, using various lethal challenge models. For the Zika vaccine, a single inoculation of MVA-Zika vaccine in normal (immunocompetent) mice provided 100 percent protection against a lethal challenge dose of a neurovirulent ZIKV delivered directly into the brain. A single inoculation of MVA-VLP-Ebola vaccine candidate provided full protection in a rhesus monkey lethal challenge model. A single inoculation of MVA-VLP-LASV vaccine protected mice against a lethal challenge delivered directly into the brain.
"To demonstrate a broad utility of the platform, we developed prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines for other infectious diseases as well as cancer," said Mr. Basu. These included prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines for HIV (already in advanced clinical trials), preventive vaccines for Marburg, Sudan and Malaria, all with major epidemic potential with high human lethality, as well as therapeutic vaccines for chronic hepatitis B infections and tumor-associated antigen (TAA)-based-cancer vaccines.
These studies on single-dose vaccines for emerging infectious diseases were supported with funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and performed at laboratories of the Centers for Disease Control, (CDC) in Fort Collins, CO, Institute of Human Virology, University of MD and NIH's Rocky Mountain Laboratories have demonstrated the broad utility of the platform. These are described in a Late-breaking presentation at the ASM Microbe 2018 meeting in Atlanta.
- Development of Vaccines from AIDS to Zika, Using a Novel 'Plug and Play' Viral Platform - ( https://www.asm.org/index.php/2-uncategorised/95945-development-of-vaccines-from-a-to-z-aids-to-zika-using-a-novel-plug-and-play-viral-platform)
Source-Eurekalert