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. The World Health Organization has prequalified Bharart Biotech’s rotavirus vaccine—ROTAVAC—enabling United Nations agencies and GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance to purchase the vaccine for use in low-income countries (LIC). Bharat is currently supplying the vaccine to LICs at one US dollar per dose and expects to be able to reduce the price if a threshold of doses are purchased. Rotavirus is the leading cause of severe diarrhea and death in children younger than five years. ROTAVAC presents a new low-cost vaccine option to prevent rotavirus and is the first licensed rotavirus vaccine to be developed using a strain of the virus isolated, manufactured, and tested in India. A team of scientists have sequenced and analyzed genomes of multiple leprosy strains from around the world in an attempt to understand previously unknown mechanisms of drug resistance. Scientists found many of the genomes harbored large numbers of random mutations, explaining why many strains of the disease have become resistant to commonly used medicines. Leprosy is a painful disease that affects over 200,000 people every year, causing major damage to the skin, nerves, and eyes. Understanding the genomic structure and mutations of leprosy will aid scientists in developing effective treatments for leprosy and drug-resistant leprosy. Researchers at the University of Liverpool and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine have developed a long-acting injectable form of malaria medicine that could simplify and improve malaria prevention. The scientists used nanotechnology—or the manipulation of matter on an atomic or molecular scale—to improve the delivery of an existing antimalarial through a new injectable formulation that can maintain blood concentration of the drug for weeks or months. Once injected into the muscle, this delivery method establishes a medicine depot that releases the antimalarial into the bloodstream over an extended period of time. Malaria chemoprophylaxis—the administration of antimalarial drugs prior to potential exposure—is a common malaria prevention strategy, but it requires patients take medicine daily to be effective. While still in the early stages of development, this new long-acting medicine could offer an alternative approach that may help patients improve adherence.  

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. Research carried out in part by an artificially intelligent (AI) robot discovered that a common ingredient in toothpaste—triclosan—showed potential to interrupt malaria-causing parasites at two critical stages of malaria progression. Triclosan, an ingredient used to prevent plaque build-up, is believed to halt the parasites growth in the blood and liver by inhibiting two different enzymes within the parasite, enoyl reductase and DHFR. Triclosan was able to target and inhibit DHFR, even in parasites resistant to the common antimalarial pyrimethamine. This discovery could potentially pave the way for new drug development, and the successful use of AI could result in more robots used for drug discovery purposes. A National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded schistosomiasis vaccine candidate will soon enter a Phase 1b clinical trial in an endemic region of Brazil. Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine, the George Washington University, and the René Rachou Institute will lead a double-blind, randomized, and controlled study in a group of 60 males and non-pregnant females with potential previous exposure to the parasite to test two different formulations of the vaccine. Schistosomiasis is the second most deadly parasitic infection in the world, affecting more than 200 million people worldwide. The vaccine being tested targets one of two parasite species, which accounts for one-third of all cases and one-half of schistosomiasis deaths worldwide. Many individuals previously treated for schistosomiasis are susceptible to reinfection, highlighting the importance of developing a safe and effective vaccine. A new tuberculosis (TB) vaccine candidate yielded positive results in monkeys, according to a new study published in Nature Medicine. The monkey species, rhesus macaques, are genetically similar to humans, but are significantly more susceptible to TB. The vaccine reduced overall TB disease by 68 percent—a major increase compared to the non-measurable protection rate of the current TB vaccine in rhesus macaques. Additionally, 41 percent of vaccinated monkeys had complete protection from TB, while 30 percent developed a less severe case of TB than unvaccinated monkeys. Thirty percent of vaccinated rhesus monkeys showed no protection. TB kills more than 1.7 million people every year, and the rise of drug-resistant TB highlights the growing need for an effective vaccine.

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 a way to reprogram immune cells to attack tuberculosis (TB), potentially paving the way for new methods to combat the disease. Traditionally, TB vaccine research has focused on activating T cells, which has yielded overall mediocre results. In this case, researchers turned their attention to stem cells. They found that when they administered the current TB vaccine BCG to mice in a way that accessed the mice’s bone marrow, it was able to reprogram their stem cells to mobilize white blood cells capable of swallowing and killing TB-causing bacteria. Researchers were then able use this finding to dissect the genomic pathways involved in triggering this enhanced immune response. Though further research is needed on the potential of stem cells, researchers are hopeful this new method could lead to a more effective vaccine against the disease. A group of 180 scientists, malaria program leaders, and global policymakers recently updated the Malaria Eradication Research Agenda (malERA) Refresh Collection, a research and development agenda that aims to accelerate progress toward total malaria elimination and eradication. Launched in 2011, the original agenda aimed to identify key knowledge gaps and define tools needed to combat malaria. The updated version addresses progress made and identifies the main challenges remaining across the areas of basic science and enabling technologies; combination interventions and modeling; diagnostics, drugs, vaccines, and vector control; insecticide and drug resistance; characterizing the reservoir and measuring transmission; and health systems and policy research. The developers of the collection hope it will provide a framework for malaria-focused research funders, the World Health Organization, and impacted nations as they make programmatic decisions for malaria elimination and eradication. Scientists at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center believe the genomic sequence of the sooty mangabey monkey may provide useful knowledge in the fight against HIV and AIDS. Sooty mangabeys are natural hosts for the Simonian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)—a genetic relative of the HIV infection—yet the animals are able to maintain healthy levels of immune cells after infection, preventing any future progression to an AIDS-like disease. After sequencing the genome of the sooty mangabey and comparing it to the genomes of humans and other apes, scientists found two major differences in immune system proteins in the genome of the sooty mangabey, which may help scientists better understand why sooty mangabeys avoid AIDS-like illness despite SIV infection. Scientists hope that further research on these genomic differences will pave the way for improved long-term care of HIV-positive individuals, including pregnant women, and unlock new avenues for vaccine research.

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. Australian scientists solved a mystery about how malaria-causing parasites infect the human body, making a key discovery that could pave the way toward an effective vaccine for the disease. Researchers found that one of the malaria-causing parasites, P.vivax, infects humans by latching onto a protein that carries iron to young red blood cells. In response, researchers created antibodies designed to block this from taking place, thus halting the infection process. Future research on the antibodies’ effectiveness is needed, but researchers remain optimistic the discovery will lead to a potential vaccine candidate for P.vivax, though it could be another decade before clinical trials begin. In December, the World Health Organization (WHO) prequalified the first infant-safe typhoid vaccine—Typbar TCV—for global use. The move comes after years of research, including a high-profile “challenge trial” involving volunteers swallowing the live virus, which found the vaccine was 87 percent effective in preventing infection. This approval by WHO allows donors, including United Nations agencies, to purchase Typbar TCV—which is now priced atUS$1.50 a dose and could drop to $1.00 if donors order more than 100 million doses—for use in low-resource countries. Global use of the vaccine should help curb the use of antibiotics for treatment, mitigating the increasing threat of antibiotic-resistant typhoid. Vitamin C may shorten tuberculosis (TB) treatment time by killing more bacteria, according to a new study in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine accidentally discovered that antioxidants, like vitamin C, stopped TB bacteria in test tubes from becoming “persisters”—or TB bacteria that become dormant during treatment and eventually cause reinfection. To test this discovery further, researchers conducted a mice study and found promising results: The mice given vitamin C in concurrence with TB drugs had ten times fewer bacteria in their lungs than the mice not given vitamin C. While human studies are necessary to confirm effectiveness, researchers agree that coupling TB drugs with vitamin C is a safe, accessible, and inexpensive choice.