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. Last week, the Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X) announced that it is awarding $3 million to Baxiva to support the development of a vaccine that targets the most common serotypes associated with invasive Escherichia coli infections. E. coli is the leading cause of urinary tract infections around the world and a common cause of neonatal sepsis infections, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. The candidate uses new targets that haven’t been used in other vaccines and targets several bacterial strains. The company’s rapid development platform also enables it to quickly design vaccines targeting various types of bacteria.The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness (CEPI) last week announced a global collaborative effort to carry out epidemiological and computational modelling projects to help strengthen scientific understanding of the Rift Valley fever and its impact across Africa, helping guide the planning of future clinical trials assessing much-needed vaccine candidates for the disease. Despite major Rift Valley fever outbreaks seen in Africa and beyond and global recognition of the need to boost R&D efforts, there are large gaps in our knowledge about the burden and spread of the disease. The two projects, led by institutions in Kenya and Tanzania and supported by global partners, will assess the impact of the disease across Africa, as well as forecast its future burden, providing crucial data for vaccine developers to plan large-scale trials when the virus is widely circulating.A new study from the University of Alabama at Birmingham demonstrates that an antibody designed to target the dengue virus could also block the spread of the Zika virus, an important finding that could inform the development of much-needed treatments for Zika. There are no approved treatments for Zika, a dangerous virus that can pose severe risks to pregnant people and their babies. In a novel preclinical in vivo model, the antibody helped stop the virus from spreading, particularly in vulnerable parts of the body, leading to improved survival rates.

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. A research team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology used artificial intelligence (AI) to design two new potential antibiotics to target drug-resistant gonorrhea and MRSA, which were successful in laboratory and animal tests. Rising antimicrobial resistance has underscored the urgent need for new antibiotics to treat drug-resistant infections, and scientists have been researching how AI could play a role in streamlining the tricky, time-consuming, and expensive task of searching through thousands of known chemicals to identify ones with potential to become new antibiotics. These researchers also brought the technology into the next step of drug development, using generative AI to actually design antibiotic compounds for further study by feeding the AI model data about the chemical structure of known compounds and whether they slow the growth of different bacterial species. While the antibiotic compounds will still need to undergo years of further study and clinical trials, they could serve, if proven effective, as important new tools against the rise of antimicrobial resistance, and, more broadly, this research could pave the way for AI to revolutionize antibiotic discovery, just as this growing threat heightens the need for new drugs.Newly published results from a study done by PATH and PT Bio Farma show that the novel live attenuated type 1 and 3 oral polio vaccines are similarly safe and effective compared to the monovalent Sabin-strain oral polio vaccines. The novel types 1 and 3 oral polio vaccines were developed in response to the rare but concerning risk of vaccine-derived polio associated with the Sabin-strain oral polio vaccines, and these results support the progression of these vaccine candidates to Phase 2 studies. If they continue to prove effective, new oral polio vaccines could support global efforts to boost immunization while reducing the risk of vaccine-associated polio. The study was conducted at four US centers among 205 adults with varying polio vaccination histories.A research team at Arizona State University has developed a test for multiple infectious diseases that is affordable, quick, and non-invasive, offering a new tool for improving access to rapid diagnosis and connection to treatment in low-resource settings around the world. The NasRED (Nanoparticle-Supported Rapid Electronic Detection) test uses just a single drop of blood, costs mere dollars, delivers results in only 15 minutes, and is simple and portable enough to be used in a wide variety of health care settings, including those without significant laboratory infrastructure or health care workers with specialized laboratory training—without sacrificing accuracy. Its developers say it could be a game-changer in an infectious disease outbreak scenario, as well as for diseases that are difficult and important to detect early, including hepatitis C or HIV. Specifically, the test uses tiny gold nanoparticles that are coated with special molecules designed to detect even extremely small amounts of disease-related proteins.

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. A new study from a team at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine found that the drug nitisinone works as a potent contact insecticide for killing the mosquito species that spread malaria, dengue, Zika, and other emerging mosquito-borne viral threats, offering hope of a new approach to combating insecticide resistance. Nitisinone, which is currently used to treat a rare genetic condition in humans, kills mosquitoes by blocking an enzyme that is necessary for them to process human blood, which is not a pathway targeted by any currently used insecticides. The research suggests that the drug could be formulated for use in indoor residual spraying or insecticide-treated bed nets, helping eliminate mosquitoes even in settings where rising insecticide resistance has undermined the effectiveness of current vector control methods.Early last week, the Gates Foundation announced a $2.5 billion commitment through 2030 to accelerate research and development on women’s health. Specifically, the funding will help advance more than 40 innovations in five critical areas: obstetric care and maternal immunization, maternal health and nutrition, gynecological and menstrual health, contraceptive innovation, and sexually transmitted infections. These areas were selected based on extensive data about where innovation can save and improve the most lives and where there are persistently high rates of misdiagnosis, as well as direct insights from women in low- and middle-income countries about their needs, preferences, and challenges.Last week, IAVI; the Mutala Trust; ReiThera; and the Ragon Institute of Mass General Brigham, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard University announced that the first doses of an investigational HIV vaccine candidate were administered in their Phase 1, first-in-human clinical trial. The clinical trial is taking place at three sites in Zimbabwe and South Africa among 120 healthy adults, including people living with HIV. Carrying out the trial in sub-Saharan Africa, which faces the highest disease burden, will help ensure the vaccine is effective and relevant in the communities where it is most needed. The vaccine candidate is designed to stimulate the immune system, particularly CD8+ T cells, to recognize and target critical structural regions of the virus. Scientists believe CD8+ T cells could potentially target HIV-infected cells, so the trial will also assess whether the vaccine candidate could be part of future therapeutic or cure technologies.

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 launched the first-ever library of adjuvants, which are substances that boost the ability of vaccines to create stronger, longer-lasting immunity. The repository, which will be housed at the United Kingdom’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and funded and led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, will include 25 adjuvants available for use in developing new vaccines against epidemic and pandemic threats. The library will act as a matchmaking service, helping developers select the best suited adjuvants to increase the effectiveness and potency of their vaccines. The project is intended to support the 100 Days Mission, an ambitious global effort to develop vaccines against newly emerging threats in as few as 100 days.A new study has found that delivering a single gene therapy injection at birth could offer years-long protection against HIV. In the study, non-human primates who received the therapy within their first month of life saw protection for at least three years without the need for a booster—a potential signal that protection could last into adolescence in humans—, while those treated at 8-12 weeks saw a less effective immune response. The immune system is naturally more tolerant within a person’s first weeks of life, so it marks an optimal window for gene treatment that could be rejected at an older age. While questions remain as to whether these findings will translate to human infants and children, if successful, this treatment could offer a “one-and-done” multiyear solution to protect again mother-to-child HIV transmission that could be more cost-effective and feasible to implement in low-resource settings worldwide.The antiparasitic drug ivermectin was found to reduce the incidence of malaria by 26 percent in a trial conducted in Kenya, a finding that demonstrates its potential use for mass drug administration alongside other malaria control interventions. Invermectin is a drug commonly used to treat parasitic diseases like onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis, but scientists have been exploring its potential in malaria prevention, given the rise in insecticide resistance, which has rendered other prevention tools like insecticide-treated bednets and indoor residual spraying less effective. The trial, which involved more than 20,000 participants, compared the drug, administered in a single monthly dose for three months during the rainy season, with the antiparasitic albendazole—both alongside use of existing bed nets. It is the largest study of ivermectin for malaria conducted to date.