Breakthroughs Blog: Ebola

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. Two new studies at Scripps Research have shown how human and mice antibodies can bind to and stop the infection of all five types of Ebolavirus—a key step in developing therapeutics capable of neutralizing all variants of the virus. During the studies, scientists observed the ability of a human antibody called ADI-15878 to bind directly to the viral “fusion loop,” which the virus uses to fuse with human cells to initiate infection, making it impossible for the virus to enter into human cells. Discovered in a human Ebola survivor, ADI-15878 is the only known antibody ever found to neutralize all five strains of the Ebola virus. A new study shows the potential of a novel microneedle platform to be used to administer vaccines during a pandemic. Researchers created a unique prototype vaccine that combined different technologies including: tiny microneedles that penetrate only the upper of the skin, a version of the H5N1 vaccine made from noninfectious “virus-like” particles that can be rapidly produced in tobacco plants, and an ingredient called an adjuvant that speeds up and strengthens the body’s response to the vaccine and has demonstrated protection against related viruses. While the study showed the product was effective in ferrets and appeared safe in humans, large-scale human trials are still needed. As vaccine researchers search for new approaches to combat pandemics, this prototype could lead to vaccine patches that could be distributed rapidly and administered without a nurse. Scientists plan to test the efficacy of a Zika vaccine candidate by intentionally infecting people with the virus, a strategy known as a human challenge trial. Researchers first launched the vaccine trial in March 2017 following an outbreak of the virus in the Americas in 2016 and had planned to open new trial sites in infection hot spots, but the effort is currently in limbo given the significant drop off in Zika cases. A major concern of researchers is that those participating in the trial may never be exposed to the virus, making it impossible to determine if the vaccine works. Plans to conduct a human challenge trial for this Zika vaccine candidate were halted by an ethics committee in 2017, which worried that people intentionally infected with the virus might transmit it to their sexual partners. Now, this method is being considered again as cases drop and industry loses interest in bringing a vaccine to market.

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. The Ministry of Public Health of the Democratic Republic of Congo has launched Ebola vaccinations for high-risk populations only one week after announcing the latest outbreak of the disease in the North Kivu province. Of the 44 cases reported so far, 17 have been confirmed. A total of 3,220 doses of the rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine candidate, developed by Merck, are currently available in country while additional doses have been requested. An agreement between Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and Merck will ensure additional doses of the vaccine are available on an emergency basis as it goes through the licensing process. The World Health Organization has provided key logistical support in establishing a cold chain and sending necessary supplies for the vaccinations, aiding in the deployment of vaccine experts, and facilitating the negotiation of protocols with the manufacturer and the national authorities. Biobanks provide vital specimens and infrastructure to support scientific research and innovation. While in the developing world, biobanks are well established, issues such as unreliable internet connectivity, a lack of access to resources such as water and electricity, a lack of highly skilled and trained personnel, and the cost of setup have stifled their establishment in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) on the African continent. Despite these barriers, LMICs in Africa should prioritize setting up biobanks, argues a group of researchers from the University of Western Cape and Stellenbosch University. They write, “Having access to rich genetic diversity across Africa would allow researchers to understand disease, develop better diagnostics and treatments, medicines and vaccines, geared toward the continent’s population.” A single-dose Zika vaccine candidate developed by researchers at The Ohio State University has proven effective in triggering an immune response in mice, according to a recent study. The vaccine uses a weakened, harmless form of the Vesicular stomatis virus—also known as foot-and-mouth diseases in cattle—to deliver proteins from the Zika virus. This method has been used with other vaccines, such as the Ebola vaccine being used in the recent outbreaks. While further testing is required to see if it is effective in humans, the vaccine candidate’s suggested ability to elicit an immune response with one dose means it has the potential to be especially valuable in hard-to-reach areas and low-resource settings.

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 editorial piece, Dr. Jenniffer Mabuka of the African Academy of Sciences makes a case that Africa needs to develop a research base to help detect and monitor a range of pathogens and better address disease outbreaks on the continent. Mabuka explains, “A thorough base of research would result in tools that will speed up detection and containment of future outbreaks, generate the knowledge base to help predict future outbreaks of known origins, and help accelerate the development of diagnostics, efficacious drugs and vaccines.” She notes that investing in research and development must be a priority for African governments as recent outbreaks serve as a reminder that equatorial Africa is a hotbed for emerging and re-emerging diseases. A group of scientists has developed a technique to modify a strain of rice to produce HIV-neutralizing proteins. While further study is needed, the researchers believe this technique could offer promise as a low-cost approach for low- and middle-income countries to manufacture topical microbicides, which are compounds that can be applied to the vagina or rectum to reduce the risk of HIV infection. Given the research team was able to alter the rice to simultaneously produce three key proteins, a combination necessary to produce a microbicide with broad coverage against multiple HIV strains, the plant’s seed extract could be used directly as a microbicide without the need for additional costly processing. Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have achieved an important step forward in developing a broadly effective antibody treatment against the three major Ebola strains. The research team reported the isolation of two potent monoclonal antibodies from human survivors of the Ebola virus. In cell culture studies, these antibodies efficiently neutralized the Zaire, Sudan, and Bundibugyo strains of the virus. Further study is required to determine if these antibodies can be combined into an injectable for use in people at high risk of being infected with the Ebola virus. The hope is that the injected antibody “cocktail” would seek out and destroy the virus before it has the chance to wreak havoc on the human body.

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 the past year, outbreaks of high-fatality diseases and pathogens such as Ebola, MERS, Zika, Nipah virus, Lassa fever, and Rift Valley fever have caused at least 190 deaths and cost millions. While these outbreaks have remained relatively contained, health officials warn these diseases all have the potential to strike again and cause a global epidemic that could kill thousands, wreak economic havoc, and threaten global security the world over. According to experts, the lack of investment in research and development is contributing to this risk. The technology company Univercells has raised over US $18.8 million in series B funding to support continued development of its platform to manufacture cost-efficient biologics. This comes on the heels of positive results from a pilot program of the company’s affordable vaccine manufacturing platform. The pilot, which tested production of the Sabin inactivated polio vaccine, showed the platform could delivers 43 million doses of the vaccine per year at a cost of US $0.15 per dose—considerably lower than current versions on the market. Univercells’ backers believe these two manufacturing platforms have incredible potential to make biologics and vaccines more affordable and accessible worldwide. The World Health Organization declared in May that Nepal has eliminated trachoma as a public health problem. Trachoma, a bacterial infection that causes swollen and inverted eyelids, is the world’s leading cause of blindness with approximately 190 million people in 41 countries at risk worldwide. Nepal follows in the footsteps of Cambodia, Laos, Mexico, Morocco, Oman, and Ghana in a list of countries that have eliminated trachoma since a global campaign to eliminate the disease was launched twenty years ago. Annual administration of antibiotics in at-risk areas and improved hygiene practices have helped drive this progress.