Dengue Vaccine Shows Early Promise

Just one dose of a low-cost vaccine proved safe and stimulated a strong immune response against the dengue virus in most participants in an early-stage clinical trial. With further development, the vaccine may help ease the burden of dengue fever in developing countries.

Dengue Vaccine Shows Early PromiseRound dengue virus particles revealed in a tissue specimen. Image courtesy of CDC.

Dengue fever occurs in tropical and subtropical areas of the world, where it is spread by mosquitoes. Each year, dengue fever affects 50 million to 100 million people and hospitalizes nearly 500,000, according to the World Health Organization. Four related viruses can cause dengue fever: DENV-1, DENV-2, DENV-3, and DENV-4. Infection with one results in immunity to that specific virus but not to the other 3. Studies have found that infection with one virus type increases the risk for severe dengue fever from a different dengue virus. The ideal vaccine, therefore, would be tetravalent—meaning it protects against all 4 dengue viruses.

In previous work, a research team led by Dr. Anna Durbin of Johns Hopkins University tested vaccine candidates against each dengue virus. The vaccines—developed by scientists at NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)—were live-attenuated vaccines. e vaccines contain weakened viruses that don’t cause illness but can still induce an immune response.


 Get The Latest By Email

Weekly Magazine Daily Inspiration

In the new study, the scientists tested tetravalent combinations of the most effective vaccine candidates against each of the 4 viruses. The phase I clinical trial included 112 healthy men and women ranging from 18 to 50 years old. None had prior exposure to dengue or other related viruses. The participants were randomized into 4 groups. Within each group, 20 people received a single injection of 1 of the 4 combinations. The remaining 8 received a placebo.

Degue Fever Moving NorthAll 4 vaccine combinations successfully produced immune responses without any serious side effects. A single dose of one vaccine combination, TV003, induced an antibody response to all 4 dengue viruses in 45% of participants and a response to at least 3 of the viruses in 90%.

What is promising about TV003 is that it elicited solid antibody responses after just one dose,” explains NIAID's Dr. Stephen Whitehead, who led development of the vaccine candidates. Other vaccines in development require 2 or 3 injections at higher doses to achieve similar results.

The scientists found that differences in side effects and immune responses correlated with ethnicity. Additional research to evaluate these racial differences is now underway. The researchers are also conducting other studies to develop and evaluate TV003 further.

TV003's inexpensive production cost—less than $1 per dose—is critical to its potential use in developing countries where dengue is prevalent. nufacturers in Brazil, India and Vietnam have already licensed the vaccine technology, called TetraVax-DV, for production and further evaluation. In addition, phase II trials are scheduled to begin soon in Brazil and Thailand. Article Source: NIH Research Matters

AVAILABLE LANGUAGES

English Afrikaans Arabic Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) Danish Dutch Filipino Finnish French German Greek Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Indonesian Italian Japanese Korean Malay Norwegian Persian Polish Portuguese Romanian Russian Spanish Swahili Swedish Thai Turkish Ukrainian Urdu Vietnamese

Sunday, 02 May 2021 08:18

When you think about soil, you probably think of rolling fields of countryside. But what about urban soil? With city dwellers expected to account for 68% of the world’s population by 2050, this oft...

Sunday, 23 May 2021 08:15

We sometimes need to use antibiotics to treat sick animals, but taking advantage of opportunities to reduce antibiotics use could benefit everyone

Friday, 02 April 2021 08:02

  Microdosing has become something of a wellness trend in recent years. The practice involves taking a low dose of a psychedelic drug to enhance performance, or reduce stress and anxiety.

Tuesday, 25 July 2023 16:09

Volunteering in late life may be more than just a noble act of giving back to the community; it could be a critical factor in safeguarding the brain against cognitive decline and dementia.

Wednesday, 26 May 2021 08:54

The term “exercise is medicine” is rightfully well publicised. It’s one of the best ways to stay healthy, yet medicine doesn’t work if you aren’t prepared to take it.

Sunday, 16 May 2021 14:24

The human body is an amazing thing, full of systems, organs, nerves, and vessels that work together in harmony. You’ve seen the body described as a machine, as a city, or even as a factory....

New Attitudes - New Possibilities

InnerSelf.comClimateImpactNews.com | InnerPower.net
MightyNatural.com | WholisticPolitics.com | InnerSelf Market
Copyright ©1985 - 2021 InnerSelf Publications. All Rights Reserved.