Research Roundup: the threat of antibiotic resistant infections, J&J Ebola vaccine roll out in DRC, and Merck Ebola vaccine granted marketing approval by European Commission

Faces of Innovation—a new GHTC project that features scientists on the front lines of research and development on new global health tools and technologies—profiles Dr. Mark Kortepeter, who we met at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) Annual Conference, who does research on emerging infectious diseases at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.My name: Mark Kortepeter, MD, PhD.Where I work: University of Nebraska in LincolnI’m funded by: Assistant Secretary of Preparedness and Response and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.My research: I’m an infectious disease and public health physician and I work for the University of Nebraska Medical Center. I lead what’s called the special pathogens research network, so this is a network, we have ten centers across the country, that are tied together as a research network for response to outbreaks, especially ones that are related to high consequence pathogens like Ebola. What we realized after the 2014/2016 outbreak [of Ebola], where there were patients coming into the US, was that there were a number of different investigational products that were used to treat the patients. We realized in the end that we really didn’t understand what was beneficial and what wasn’t in terms of the treatment because they were all given as individual investigational products. So the whole goal was to have a network that was tied together so we can learn more if this happens again—whether it’s Ebola or some other disease like Nipa virus or some novel influenza—so at the end of an outbreak, we would actually be able to compile data, be working off the same sheet of music, off the same protocol, to essentially advance science in understanding what works best for patients.If there are novels products that are still investigational, we would track with those—so we have some Ebola countermeasures that we have been working with…as well as if there was something new that popped up and a need to study something in real time, we could do that. In addition, if there is something for which there is no therapy, we also have the ability to follow the natural history of the disease and what clinical interventions also seem to be useful.Motivation: I got into this because I had a travel bug, and I liked the idea of doing work in infectious diseases because there is a travel component with it because you’re dealing with exotic diseases across the world. So that’s what really got me into it. I just found it fascinating working with people of other cultures.Why federal support is critical: It’s important to invest in this because we really don’t know where the next outbreak will come from…It’s possible that something will come out of left field and surprise us. So it’s very important to have some preparedness in mind, such that you can be ready for anything that comes. If you really think about it, we were all caught up with Ebola in 2014/2016, and then suddenly there is Zika virus, or we were surprised when West Nile showed up on the US shores. So we have to have a global mindset, we have to understand what’s going on outside the country as well as what can land on our shores, because we just never know what’s going to happen next. We’re all kind of one global world now in terms of infectious diseases. Infectious diseases have no boundaries or borders.When I’m not in the lab: The thing I’m really excited about right now is that I wrote a book about my experiences dealing with bioweapon defense when I worked at Fort Detrick, Maryland at the US Army laboratory there…It’s called “Inside the Hot Zone: A Solider on the Frontline of Biological Warfare.” It just came out this week. It’s written like a medical thriller, but it’s also very educational, and it gives an insider’s perspective on things like the anthrax attacks, preparation for Ebola outbreaks, dealing with Ebola in the laboratory, things like that. 

Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign-up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email.Scientists have identified a new strain of HIV for the first time in 19 years. This strain is part of the Group M version of the HIV-1 virus—the same family of subtypes responsible for the global HIV pandemic—and is the first new Group M HIV strain to be identified since the guidelines for classifying subtypes were established in 2000. Knowing which virus strains are circulating ensures that diagnostic tests used to detect the disease are effective and provides scientists with a more complete picture of how HIV evolves. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, noted there was no need for panic as current treatments for HIV are effective against this strain and others. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 36.7 million people in the world are living with HIV, and UNAIDS estimates that in 2016 1.8 million people became newly infected with the virus. Takeda Pharmaceuticals reported preliminary results from a late-stage study evaluating the effectiveness of its dengue vaccine candidate, which showed promising but mixed results. In the study which tested two doses of the vaccine in more than 19,000 children in eight countries, the vaccine demonstrated an overall effectiveness rate of 80.2 percent against all four strains of dengue virus. In one strain, known as DENV-2, the effectiveness rate was 97.7 percent but the effectiveness rates in two other strains, DENV-1 and DENV-3, were much lower at 73.7 percent and 62.6 percent respectively. There was not enough data to assess the effectiveness of the vaccine against the fourth strain of the virus. Experts note that before final safety and efficacy determinations can be made about the vaccine, longer term safety data is required, especially among children who were not previously infected with dengue virus—an issue that has hampered rival pharmaceutical company Sanofi’s Dengvaxia vaccine. In a pilot program in Zanzibar, an island off the coast of Tanzania, drones are being tested to deploy a new tool to help fight malaria. The drones will spray rice paddies, which are typical breeding grounds for malaria-transmitting mosquitoes, with Aquatain, a non-toxic, silicon-based liquid gel that creates a thin film on top of the water that traps and kills mosquito larvae and pupae by preventing them from breathing at the water surface. After the trial in Zanzibar, researchers plan to publish their findings in peer-reviewed journals and hope to expand their approach across the African continent. According to the United Nations, malaria kills a young child every minute and causes 75 percent of all deaths under the age of five.