Breakthroughs Blog: Research Roundup

  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. In this regular feature on Breakthroughs, we highlight some of the most interesting reads in global health research from the past week.   A new study suggests that a newly discovered class of antibiotics could potentially wipe out drug-resistant staph infections caused by MRSA, raising hope for progress in the fight against antimicrobial resistance. Scientists at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence focused on MRSA because infection produces “persister” cells—cells that evade common antibiotic treatment by lying dormant in the body. The research team tested thousands of lab-made molecules on roundworms infected with MRSA and discovered two molecules from the retinoid family that not only killed normal MRSA cells, but also the “persister” cells as well. While these retinoids were not effective against another group of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that cause urinary tract infections, pneumonia, and other conditions; they still hold promise in treating persistent and antibiotic-resistant forms of MRSA, which can be lethal to patients. Scientists at Yale University have developed a new experimental RNA therapy, delivered via the nose, to treat West Nile Virus infections. In mice studies, the therapy reduced the viral load in the brain, allowing the organism’s immune system to properly destroy the remainder of the virus throughout the body as well as develop long-term protection against future exposure. By using RNA molecules that are effective against flaviviruses combined with a peptide derived from the rabies virus that is able to interfere with nerve cells and delivering them through the nose, scientists were able to bypass the blood-brain barrier to kill the virus in the brain with 90 percent effectiveness in the mice studies. There is currently no approved vaccine or effective therapy to treat West Nile Virus. A new study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases suggests that the medication ivermectin can make human blood deadly to malaria-carrying mosquitoes, offering a new potential strategy to fight this deadly disease. Researchers at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine found that three high doses of invermectin—a medicine originally developed to combat river blindness and elephantiasis—made human blood toxic to mosquitoes for 28 days after the third treatment, while producing few side effects in patients. In lab tests, 97 percent of mosquitoes died within two weeks of feeding on the blood with ivermectin. While more research is needed, this discovery could offer a potential new approach to complement existing malaria control programs.

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. In this regular feature on Breakthroughs, we highlight some of the most interesting reads in global health research from the past week. In mouse studies, scientists at the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research have discovered a key step in the digestion process of hookworms that can be targeted to potentially disrupt the parasite’s development and subsequent survival in human blood. Scientists first proved that the mouse-infecting hookworms behaved similarly to human-infecting hookworms. Then, researchers tracked the digestion processes of the hookworms to understand how the hookworm digested heme—the molecular component of hemoglobin. Scientists tested a common chemical compound—quinolones—known to disrupt malaria and schistosoma parasites, and they found that the compound performed well in disrupting the digestion process of the hookworms. Though quinolones are not a viable treatment option for the long run—primarily due to widespread antibiotic resistance—scientists are optimistic that they’ve found a viable avenue to start exploring drugs and vaccine candidates that could affect hookworms in a similar way. Researchers found that revaccination with the Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine could prevent sustained tuberculosis (TB) infection in adolescents, according to results from a phase 2 clinical trial. Researchers randomly assigned 990 healthy adolescents in South Africa who had been immunized with BCG as infants to one of three groups: A placebo group, an experimental vaccine group, and the BCG vaccine group, with the intent to monitor the rate at which individuals tested positive for TB. Researchers found that BCG’s efficacy of preventing sustained TB infection was 45 percent, 15 percent higher than the experimental vaccine, which was 30 percent. These results could help optimize BCG vaccination approaches and inform TB vaccine development efforts. A joint venture in Nigeria recently announced their locally produced vaccines will be ready to hit Nigerian markets in the next three to four years, marking the first time since 1991 that Nigerian-produced vaccines will be available to the public. The joint venture, composed of the Nigerian government and May&Baker Nigeria, targets local manufacturers of vaccines to form partnerships and work toward developing an array of vaccines for the Nigerian public. While the types of vaccines to be developed have not been disclosed to the public, the country’s former vaccine production laboratory tackled major public health threats like smallpox, yellow fever, and rabies. The government-run laboratory closed in 1991. This new joint venture plans to incorporate government support, private industry, and partnerships to bring relevant vaccines to the people.  

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. In this regular feature on Breakthroughs, we highlight some of the most interesting reads in global health research from the past week. Researchers discovered that the meal times of malaria-infected organisms may impact the rate at which the malaria parasite multiplies in the host’s blood. A team at the University of Edinburgh studied the parasitic rhythms of reproduction and invasion of red blood cells in malaria-infected mice and found that the parasites timed their daily multiplication rhythms to match when the animals were fed. When the mice’s feeding time changed, the parasites altered the timing in which they invaded red blood cells. Researchers believe that interfering with the biological processes that link eating to these parasite rhythms—through diet, drugs, or other approaches—could reduce the spread of malaria infection A team of scientists recently created a prototype oral flu vaccine that does not need to be temperature controlled—paving the way for potential new oral vaccines that do not require refrigeration or freezing. Unlike traditional biological vaccines, which are made from part of a virus or bacteria and must be temperature controlled to remain stable, this oral vaccine prototype contains manmade peptides that mimic peptides in real viruses. Scientists found the prototype triggered a strong immune response when tested in human cell cultures and in mice. While more research is needed, these early results are promising. A heat-stable oral vaccine would be easier to transport and store, which could improve care in low-resource, hard-to-reach communities were immunization supply chains may be insufficient. Scientists at the Jena and Friedrich Schiller University Hospital are working to develop a rapid antibiotic resistance test. Current diagnostics for drug-resistant infections can take up to 72 hours to deliver results—a long amount of time for these infections, which can be acutely life-threatening. Using light-based analytical methods combined with microfluidic sample processes—which the researchers colloquially referred to as a miniature Lab-on-a-Chip system—the scientists were able to clearly identify bacterial strains and their resistances in fewer than three hours. New rapid tests for antibiotic-resistant infections could help get patients on treatment more quickly and reduce the overprescription of antibiotics.

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. In this regular feature on Breakthroughs, we highlight some of the most interesting reads in global health research from the past week. Scientists have created a new process to detect tuberculosis (TB) by introducing a molecule to the bacteria’s outer layer that illuminates under fluorescent light. This innovation could help make sputum microscopy tests easier to perform, improving the accuracy and speed at which patients with TB are diagnosed and treated. While there are other staining methods in use, this molecule—DMN-trehalose—is actually incorporated by the TB bacteria as it builds up its outer protective layer, thus this method illuminates only living TB bacteria, unlike other stains which reveal both live and dead bacteria. This makes it easier for health professionals to diagnose TB and monitor a patient’s response to treatment over time. Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco discovered new mechanisms by which HIV hides in infected cells, remaining in a latent mode that evades the body’s immune system and antiviral drugs. When the HIV virus infects immune cells, most cells start producing more of the virus, but a fraction of the cells become dormant. Current therapies are not able to kills these dormant cells, which can then reawaken and cause a resurgence of the virus in patients. To understand this progression better, researchers used a panel of tests to study the process by which these dormant, infected cells convert viral DNA to RNA and discovered that these latent cells stall out at various stages, marking their dormant status. Helping the dormant cells finish making RNA will wake them up, allowing the body to recognize and kill the infected cells with assistance from common antivirals. These findings could help scientists understand and develop new treatments to target and address the issue of latent HIV infection. Researchers in the Netherlands are undertaking an unusual approach to vaccine research, infecting 17 volunteers with parasitic worms as part of a new vaccine study for the potentially fatal disease schistosomiasis. Each volunteer agreed to have 20 male parasitic worms—worms that will be unable to reproduce or lay eggs—injected into their arms with the intent to be monitored for 12 weeks following infection. After 12 weeks, volunteers will receive a drug to kill the remaining worms. Researchers hope this study will show it is possible to test vaccines with this method, which is faster and more affordable than field research, which can take months or even years to run and complete.