Breakthroughs Blog: Malaria

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 Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that it had prequalified a point-of-care assay that can help guide the treatment of Plasmodium vivax malaria. The assay, developed by SD Biosensor and PATH, detects glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency, which can lead to severe anemia in patients taking certain drugs to treat P. vivax malaria. This designation aims to improve access to the diagnostic in countries facing a high burden of malaria, enabling improved treatment for patients. The announcement arrives shortly after WHO prequalified two drugs for the treatment of P. vivax malaria last month.Researchers at the University of Minnesota and the Midwest Antiviral Drug Discovery Center have developed the first nanobody-based inhibitors targeting the Ebola virus, a deadly pathogen with a fatality rate of about 50 percent. Nanobodies are small antibodies derived from animals that can penetrate areas of viruses and human tissues that larger antibodies cannot reach, providing protection against infection. The team, which previously developed nanobodies to target COVID-19, found promising results for their nanobodies in lab tests in Ebola-infected mice. If this research continues to be successful, it could pave the way for treatments not only for Ebola but also for other viruses in the same family, including Sudan ebolavirus and Marburg virus.Last week, the Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X) announced $2.6 million in funding to Clarametyx Biosciences to develop an anti-biofilm vaccine that could help prevent serious bacterial infections and mitigate the rise of antibiotic resistance. Specifically, the funding will support the further development of the company’s pathogen-agnostic vaccine candidate designed to prevent the formulation of bacterial biofilms, which are protective layers that bacteria use to shield themselves from antibiotics and the immune system, therefore allowing the body’s immune system to clear infections without the use of antibiotics. Hard-to-treat bacterial infections associated with biofilms are estimated to be responsible for up to 80 percent of bacterial infections and are known to contribute to the emergence of antibiotic resistance.

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 was able to induce broadly neutralizing antibodies targeting hepatitis C virus (HCV) in laboratory models for the first time, providing a promising approach for a vaccine targeting the virus, which an estimated 58 million people globally are chronically infected with and which causes 290,000 deaths annually. HCV is identified as a globally prioritized pathogen for vaccine research and development by the World Health Organization, but developing a vaccine has been a challenge due to the high genetic diversity of the virus. This new approach, if proven successful in further studies, could not only bring us closer to an effective HCV vaccine that could help limit the spread of the virus but could also lay the foundation for a new generation of vaccines against other priority viruses.Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that it had granted prequalification to Cepheid’s Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra rapid diagnostic test for tuberculosis (TB), the first TB diagnostic test to be prequalified by WHO. The designation will hopefully help ensure broader access to the product, allowing for accurate and early detection of TB, especially drug-resistant TB. Within hours, the test detects the genetic material of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in sputum samples and identifies mutations associated with rifampicin resistance, a key indicator of multidrug-resistant TB. A recent report found that 8.2 million people—the highest number of cases recorded by WHO since it began global TB monitoring—were diagnosed with TB in 2023, underscoring the need for greater access to new and improved tools.Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that it had granted prequalification to tafenoquine, the first single-dose medicine for the prevention of Plasmodium vivax malaria, and also included tafenoquine, co-administered with chloroquine, in the new WHO malaria guidelines for South America. P. vivax is the dominant malaria parasite in most countries outside of sub-Saharan Africa, with children under five and migrant populations at particular risk. The prequalification and inclusion of tafenoquine in the updated guidelines are aimed at improving access to the treatment, which is shorter and simpler than current treatment regimens.

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 study published last week tested a promising new malaria vaccination strategy that aims to boost immunity through bites from mosquitoes carrying a genetically engineered version of the malaria parasite, which could pave the way for improved malaria vaccines. There are two approved vaccines for malaria, but they are only about 75 percent effective and require booster shots. In a trial, researchers exposed participants to bites from mosquitoes that had a version of the malaria parasite that was genetically modified to stop developing after delivery into a human, finding that nearly 90 percent of participants exposed to the modified parasites avoided contracting the disease after being bitten. The next step will be a larger trial to confirm this strategy as a viable candidate to advance malaria control efforts.A new study found that vaccines for diarrhea could reduce bacteria-associated diarrhea and antibiotic use among young children in low- and middle-income countries, which could also help reduce the emergence of antimicrobial resistance due to antibiotic overuse in low-resource settings where cases of diarrheal disease are most common. The research team used data from a previously published study exploring enteric infections and diarrheal illness in children in low- and middle-income countries and generated simulations to estimate the hypothetical impact of nine vaccine scenarios, including six single-pathogen vaccines and three combination vaccines. They found that, compared to the other single-pathogen vaccines, a vaccine against Shigella could cause the greatest reduction in antibiotic courses, and an adenovirus-norovirus-rotavirus vaccine could cause the greatest reductions in antibiotic use compared to the other combination vaccines.Last week, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) announced $1.46 million in funding for PATH to develop antibody reagents for developing vaccines against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS. Antibody reagents are critical for measuring and analyzing a vaccine’s potency and ability to induce an immune response. PATH will lead efforts to develop and test reagents, as well as collaborate with the Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Development to select and scale up a SARS-CoV-1-specific antibody to ensure these reagents are available globally, particularly in low and middle-income countries. The project aims to strengthen global health security by allowing researchers and manufacturers the tools to develop and scale up vaccines quickly in the face of an outbreak or new variant.

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 study published last week and presented at the American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene’s (ASTMH’s) annual meeting found that the malaria parasite is acquiring partial resistance to artemisinin, a key drug used to treat children with severe malaria, meaning that infection takes longer to clear and is not always being completely cleared by the drug. The researchers found partial resistance to the drug in 11 of the 100 children treated in the study, with 10 patients “cured” of severe malaria having a resurgence of the same strain within a month of the original infection, implying that the first treatment did not fully eliminate the parasite. More studies are needed to determine how widespread artemisinin resistance is in Africa. Still, the findings underscore the need for novel or alternative drugs to be used in the treatment of severe malariaThe US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has awarded Alveo Technologies a contract to develop a molecular assay to detect and differentiate the H5 subtype of avian influenza A from seasonable influenza A and B viruses in humans, as the ongoing spread of H5N1 in animals across the United States raises concerns about a new pandemic as regular flu season looms. Currently, only CDC and US state and jurisdictional public health labs have access to CDC’s molecular test to detect the H5 strain of influenza A, which could lead to delays in diagnosis or treatment if we start to see transmission between humans. Decentralized testing capabilities at the point of care will be needed to ensure any spread between humans is detected and controlled quickly to avoid another pandemic, as well as to reduce the burden on centralized laboratories.  Last week, the endTB consortium announced the completion of the endTB-Q trial, the first Phase 3 randomized controlled trial to exclusively enroll people with pre-extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (pre-XDR-TB), with preliminary results demonstrating that a shorter, less toxic treatment strategy of four drugs achieved high cure rates overall, especially in those with non-severe cases of TB disease. Pre-XDR-TB has historically been treated with toxic regimens that last up to two years, are hard to tolerate, and are not very effective. This study tested a personalized medicine strategy, with disease severity and early treatment response used to decide between a six- or nine-month treatment regimen. The study included participants from India, Kazakhstan, Lesotho, Pakistan, Peru, and Vietnam.