Ebola vaccine promising in first human trials ----NIH
Researchers say they’re a step closer to developing an Ebola vaccine, with a Phase 1 trial showing promising results, but it will be months at the earliest before it can be used in the field, reports The Himalayan Times.
The news comes amid the worst ever outbreak of the
haemorrhagic fever, which has killed nearly 5,700 people, mostly in West Africa .
Pharmaceutical companies and health agencies are scrambling
to fast-track experimental drugs and vaccines that could help.
In the first phase of testing, all 20 healthy adults
injected with a higher or lower dose of the vaccine developed antibodies needed
to fight Ebola, said the National Institutes of Health, which conducted the
study.
Results were published yesterday in the New England Journal
of Medicine.
“The unprecedented scale of the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa has intensified efforts to develop safe and
effective vaccines,” said Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is developing the vaccine alongside
GlaxoSmithKline.
The vaccines under development “may play a role in bringing
this epidemic to an end and undoubtedly will be critically important in
preventing future large outbreaks,” he noted.
“Based on these positive results from the first human trial
of this candidate vaccine, we are continuing our accelerated plan for larger
trials to determine if the vaccine is efficacious in preventing Ebola
infection,” he added.
But the NIAID/GSK vaccine is still a long way from being
ready for use in the field.
The NIAID is “in active discussions with Liberian officials
and other partners about next-stage vaccine testing in West
Africa ” for efficacy and safety, the NIH said, but no announcement
on larger-scale trials was expected before early next year.
There is no licensed treatment or vaccine against the Ebola
virus, which is transmitted through bodily fluids and has been fatal in an
estimated 70 per cent of cases in the current outbreak.
Antibodies within four weeks
The volunteers were injected starting in September, and each showed a positive
result for Ebola antibodies in blood tests within four weeks. The 10 volunteers
in the higher-dose group developed higher antibody levels, the NIH said. In
addition, two of the lower-dose group and seven of the higher-dose group
developed a kind of immune cell called CD8 T cells, which are an important part
of the body’s response against disease.
“We know from previous studies in non-human primates that
CD8 T cells played a crucial role in protecting animals” who got the vaccine
and then were exposed to Ebola, said researcher Julie Ledgerwood, the trial’s
principal investigator. None of the volunteers experienced serious side effects
within the study period, though two had a brief, mild fever within the 24 hours
after the injection.
Comments
Post a Comment