Taylor Capizola

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. While wild poliovirus cases have dropped significantly over the years—with only 22 total reported cases in 2017—surveillance gaps still linger, making future progress in wild polio eradication more fragile. Three countries have yet to be declared free of wild polio transmission: Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria. Researchers found that health-facility surveillance was limited in these countries due to conflict situations. While community-based surveillance was effective in identifying cases, experts noted that more case searchers are needed in displaced persons camps and more community participation required to reach inaccessible areas. Researchers stressed that strong polio surveillance will still be needed long after eradication and after the oral poliovirus vaccine is discontinued. Researchers have created a new animal model to more effectively study Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, according to new research published in Nature Microbiology. Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, a viral disease spread by ticks, is fatal in nearly one of three cases, and there are no specific treatments or vaccines for the disease. To advance this research, scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases conducted a pilot study infecting African green monkeys, rhesus macaques, and cynomolgus macaques with the virus. While the first two monkey species showed no signs of disease, two of the three cynomolgus macaques developed the virus. In a larger study with the cynomolgus macaques, all of the animals developed the virus. Because this species developed the virus in the same way humans do, researchers believe this animal model will be useful in studying how infection interacts with the immune system and ultimately help scientists develop treatments and vaccines. Scientists at the University of Waterloo have developed a new tool to prevent HIV transmission in women. The tool, a vaginal implant that looks similar to an intrauterine device, decreases the number of cells that HIV can target within a woman’s genital tract. HIV infects the body by taking over T cells that the immune system mobilizes in response to the virus; however, if these cells remain in a resting state and do not attempt to respond to the virus, they are not infected. Scientists believe this tool, which releases a medicine to induce T cells into a resting state, could be a more reliable way to encourage the cells not to respond to infection, lowering the rates of HIV transmission. While more research is needed into the reliability and validity of the tool, scientists are optimistic that this may be a useful tool to protect women at high risk for developing HIV.

  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. Extra iron in red blood cells may interfere with essential proteins that protect against malaria, according to a new study published in Science. Researchers at the National Institutes of Health discovered extra iron can interfere with the protein ferroportin—a protein that prevents toxic buildup of iron in red blood cells and helps these cells combat malaria. More so, researchers discovered a mutation of ferroportin in African populations that protects against malaria by shielding against a hormone that prevents iron from being removed from the cells. These findings regarding ferroportin help solve a long-standing mystery as to why iron supplements can sometimes worsen malaria infection, while iron deficiency can in some cases be protective. A newly published study suggests children infected with the Zika virus during infancy may be at risk of experiencing brain damage. Researchers infected infant monkeys with the Zika virus, and the monkeys subsequently showed brain changes in the hippocampus—the part of the brain involved in regulating emotions, memory, and spatial navigation. After a year of study, researchers noticed the brains of the infected animals progressed differently than the monkeys who were not infected with Zika, suggesting damage and stunting. Though Zika has been linked to brain damage when it infects a fetus in the womb, this research is to first to link brain damage in infants to Zika infection after birth. While more research is needed into how the Zika virus can affect human babies, researchers believe this data may help inform new parents traveling to Zika-endemic areas and clinicians monitoring infants exposed to the virus. A new blood test is able to predict tuberculosis (TB) development up to two years before onset in individuals living with someone with active TB, according to new research. While individuals who live with someone with active TB are at higher risk of developing TB, only between 5-20 percent of people infected with the TB bacteria actually develop active TB, which means a large number of people are given preventative treatment who may not need it. By jointly measuring the expression levels of four different genes associated with inflammatory responses, this test can more accurately predict the likelihood of developing active TB. Researchers conducted a retrospective study with participants living in homes with people with active TB and found positive results of the blood test in the healthy participants who then later progressed to active TB. While more research is needed on the blood test, researchers are hopeful this test could reduce the number of individuals receiving unnecessary preventative treatments.  

  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.   A new study suggests that a newly discovered class of antibiotics could potentially wipe out drug-resistant staph infections caused by MRSA, raising hope for progress in the fight against antimicrobial resistance. Scientists at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence focused on MRSA because infection produces “persister” cells—cells that evade common antibiotic treatment by lying dormant in the body. The research team tested thousands of lab-made molecules on roundworms infected with MRSA and discovered two molecules from the retinoid family that not only killed normal MRSA cells, but also the “persister” cells as well. While these retinoids were not effective against another group of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that cause urinary tract infections, pneumonia, and other conditions; they still hold promise in treating persistent and antibiotic-resistant forms of MRSA, which can be lethal to patients. Scientists at Yale University have developed a new experimental RNA therapy, delivered via the nose, to treat West Nile Virus infections. In mice studies, the therapy reduced the viral load in the brain, allowing the organism’s immune system to properly destroy the remainder of the virus throughout the body as well as develop long-term protection against future exposure. By using RNA molecules that are effective against flaviviruses combined with a peptide derived from the rabies virus that is able to interfere with nerve cells and delivering them through the nose, scientists were able to bypass the blood-brain barrier to kill the virus in the brain with 90 percent effectiveness in the mice studies. There is currently no approved vaccine or effective therapy to treat West Nile Virus. A new study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases suggests that the medication ivermectin can make human blood deadly to malaria-carrying mosquitoes, offering a new potential strategy to fight this deadly disease. Researchers at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine found that three high doses of invermectin—a medicine originally developed to combat river blindness and elephantiasis—made human blood toxic to mosquitoes for 28 days after the third treatment, while producing few side effects in patients. In lab tests, 97 percent of mosquitoes died within two weeks of feeding on the blood with ivermectin. While more research is needed, this discovery could offer a potential new approach to complement existing malaria control programs.

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 mouse studies, scientists at the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research have discovered a key step in the digestion process of hookworms that can be targeted to potentially disrupt the parasite’s development and subsequent survival in human blood. Scientists first proved that the mouse-infecting hookworms behaved similarly to human-infecting hookworms. Then, researchers tracked the digestion processes of the hookworms to understand how the hookworm digested heme—the molecular component of hemoglobin. Scientists tested a common chemical compound—quinolones—known to disrupt malaria and schistosoma parasites, and they found that the compound performed well in disrupting the digestion process of the hookworms. Though quinolones are not a viable treatment option for the long run—primarily due to widespread antibiotic resistance—scientists are optimistic that they’ve found a viable avenue to start exploring drugs and vaccine candidates that could affect hookworms in a similar way. Researchers found that revaccination with the Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine could prevent sustained tuberculosis (TB) infection in adolescents, according to results from a phase 2 clinical trial. Researchers randomly assigned 990 healthy adolescents in South Africa who had been immunized with BCG as infants to one of three groups: A placebo group, an experimental vaccine group, and the BCG vaccine group, with the intent to monitor the rate at which individuals tested positive for TB. Researchers found that BCG’s efficacy of preventing sustained TB infection was 45 percent, 15 percent higher than the experimental vaccine, which was 30 percent. These results could help optimize BCG vaccination approaches and inform TB vaccine development efforts. A joint venture in Nigeria recently announced their locally produced vaccines will be ready to hit Nigerian markets in the next three to four years, marking the first time since 1991 that Nigerian-produced vaccines will be available to the public. The joint venture, composed of the Nigerian government and May&Baker Nigeria, targets local manufacturers of vaccines to form partnerships and work toward developing an array of vaccines for the Nigerian public. While the types of vaccines to be developed have not been disclosed to the public, the country’s former vaccine production laboratory tackled major public health threats like smallpox, yellow fever, and rabies. The government-run laboratory closed in 1991. This new joint venture plans to incorporate government support, private industry, and partnerships to bring relevant vaccines to the people.  

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 that the meal times of malaria-infected organisms may impact the rate at which the malaria parasite multiplies in the host’s blood. A team at the University of Edinburgh studied the parasitic rhythms of reproduction and invasion of red blood cells in malaria-infected mice and found that the parasites timed their daily multiplication rhythms to match when the animals were fed. When the mice’s feeding time changed, the parasites altered the timing in which they invaded red blood cells. Researchers believe that interfering with the biological processes that link eating to these parasite rhythms—through diet, drugs, or other approaches—could reduce the spread of malaria infection A team of scientists recently created a prototype oral flu vaccine that does not need to be temperature controlled—paving the way for potential new oral vaccines that do not require refrigeration or freezing. Unlike traditional biological vaccines, which are made from part of a virus or bacteria and must be temperature controlled to remain stable, this oral vaccine prototype contains manmade peptides that mimic peptides in real viruses. Scientists found the prototype triggered a strong immune response when tested in human cell cultures and in mice. While more research is needed, these early results are promising. A heat-stable oral vaccine would be easier to transport and store, which could improve care in low-resource, hard-to-reach communities were immunization supply chains may be insufficient. Scientists at the Jena and Friedrich Schiller University Hospital are working to develop a rapid antibiotic resistance test. Current diagnostics for drug-resistant infections can take up to 72 hours to deliver results—a long amount of time for these infections, which can be acutely life-threatening. Using light-based analytical methods combined with microfluidic sample processes—which the researchers colloquially referred to as a miniature Lab-on-a-Chip system—the scientists were able to clearly identify bacterial strains and their resistances in fewer than three hours. New rapid tests for antibiotic-resistant infections could help get patients on treatment more quickly and reduce the overprescription of antibiotics.

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.   A daily, one-month tuberculosis (TB) prophylaxis regime may provide the same protection for HIV-positive individuals as the standard nine-month prophylactic regime, according to a new study. HIV-positive individuals are at heightened risk of contracting TB, and TB kills more people with HIV than any other disease, including AIDS-associated illnesses. The phase III study found that while protection rates against TB were similar in a group receiving one-month of treatment versus nine-months, toxicity was lower in the one-month group and fewer people in the one-month group experienced neurologic and liver events, though more people in the one-month group experienced hematologic events, including anemia and drops in white blood cell counts. Researchers need to study the regimen further, but these results are promising. A shorter, simplified TB prophylaxis regimen could improve patient adherence. Scientists at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Malaria Research Institute used CRISPR, a gene-editing tool, to make mosquitos highly resistant to the malaria parasite, making it much less likely for the mosquito to transmit the parasite to humans. Scientists used CRISPR to delete a gene—FREP1—that helps the parasite survive in the mosquito's gut and develop further, making the malaria parasites within the mosquito much less likely to survive and reproduce. This study marks the first time a mosquito has been rendered resistant to malaria by deleting a gene. Scientists believe replacing wild mosquitos with these gene-edited mosquitos could dramatically reduce the incidence and subsequent burden of malaria in local populations. It may be possible to create a drinkable solution to provide protection to individuals during a cholera epidemic, according to new research. Cholera is set off by a toxin, which attaches to the intestinal wall and causes life-threatening diarrhea. Researchers found that introducing certain molecules into the intestine can prevent the cholera toxin from binding to specific receptors on the intestinal surface. The researchers believe these results offer the possibility of creating a drinkable antidote that would put these receptors offline. This solution could be easier and quicker to administer than vaccines in an epidemic scenario, helping immediately reduce the spread of cholera in an affected area.