Research Roundup: Typhoid conjugate vaccine study, Ebola/Marburg test funding, COVID mRNA vaccines help cancer patients

Last week, Monod Bio announced that it has received a $750,000 grant from the Gates Foundation’s Grand Challenges initiative to develop a point-of-care test for preeclampsia, a pregnancy complication characterized by high blood pressure, which is a leading cause of maternal deaths. Preeclampsia is a particular challenge in low- and middle-income countries where complex and high-cost testing is not always accessible. The test is designed to detect two protein biomarkers associated with preeclampsia and utilizes an artificial intelligence-derived algorithm to analyze the results. The developers aim for the test to be a rapid, one-step tool that delivers results in under 15 minutes, without requiring complex and expensive laboratory infrastructure and highly skilled health care workers. The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations is partnering with the Serum Institute of India, the largest vaccine manufacturer in the world, to develop a new vaccine targeting H5N1 avian flu that elicits a broad immune response across multiple H5 viral strains. The vaccine candidate is intended to serve as a prototype vaccine for Disease X, a yet-to-arise pathogen with pandemic potential. This project is part of CEPI’s 100 Days Mission aimed at having a vaccine within 100 days of identifying a new pandemic threat.A research team from the German University of Würzburg has developed a method for diagnosing viral infections that leverages the unique features of the human tongue, which could be incorporated into gum or a lollipop. The researchers were inspired by prior work on dental implants, developing a method that uses chemical sensors to trigger a taste change in individuals infected with the flu, even before they experience symptoms. The researchers are now working to figure out how to make their method more sensitive and low-cost, tailor it to other diseases, test it on people with different levels of taste perception, and pair it with an app that would enable people to self-report infection, which could help generate real-time data across populations in the case of a large-scale influenza outbreak. 

An international research team, led by scientists at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, shared the results of the Phase 1 trial of a novel vaccine designed to protect against typhoid fever and non-typhoidal Salmonella infections, reporting that the vaccine produced a strong immune response and was safe and well-tolerated in a small group of healthy US adults. These encouraging findings pave the way for the next step of evaluating the vaccine in children. A single vaccine that targets Typhoid fever and non-typhoid Salmonella, both leading causes of illness and death in children in Africa, could be a game-changer for pediatric health. The vaccine could also help protect people in the United States and other high-income countries, where some types of Salmonella are common causes of foodborne illness. Following the example of the US military, who often wear uniforms treated with insecticide to repel mosquitoes in malaria-endemic regions, a research team has tested a similar approach to try to protect young children, who face a significant burden of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa. While existing vector control tools, such as insecticide-treated bednets, only protect children while they’re sleeping, a large randomized controlled trial in Uganda tested the efficacy of insecticide-treated baby wraps, used in conjunction with bednets. The trial found that the baby wraps were highly effective at preventing malaria infections. The dramatic scale of the reduction of new infections also suggests that malaria-carrying mosquitoes were biting during the daytime more often than previously thought, which could help guide the development of new vector control tools and approaches. Last week, The Safety of Antimalarials in the FIRst trimEster (SAFIRE) consortium announced that it had enrolled its first patient in Mali, marking the official start of the first-ever Phase 3 adaptive platform trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of antimalarial drugs in the first trimester of pregnancy. The trial is a landmark achievement that could not only help fill the crucial gap of safe and effective options for pregnant women at risk of malaria, but it is also a step toward equity and inclusion for clinical research and drug development in general, which have long excluded pregnant women, fueling the gap in the first place. SAFIRE partners have shared that early formative research in the communities where the trial will take place was a crucial step in ensuring that the design and process were appropriate and acceptable to the communities. The study will continue to progress in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Kenya.