Henipavirus Infections

DEL MAR, Calif., Aug. 6, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Phylex Biosciences has achieved positive results with its new mRNA nanoparticle vaccine against the Nipah virus in an immunogenicity study conducted in collaboration with scientists of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia. The Nipah virus is a pathogen causing encephalitis and acute respiratory distress in humans, with recent outbreaks in Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore, and a fatality rate over 50%. The natural hosts of the virus are large fruit bats present across South Asia. Last month the Indian state of Kerala reported the death of a 14-year-old boy from a Nipah virus infection. To date, no approved vaccine or therapeutic exists against the Nipah virus. Phylex has published a preprint of a research article on immunogenicity of its Nipah mRNA nanoparticle vaccine candidate in mice co-authored with scientists of the CDC (). The vaccine elicited a robust neutralizing antibody response, with neutralizing titers markedly higher than with several other Nipah vaccine designs, and efficient neutralizing even with a single dose. The Phylex mRNA vaccine encodes for a nanoparticle displaying 60 copies of the antigen based upon the head domain of the G protein of the Nipah virus. In virus neutralization assays, neutralization titers of Phylex vaccine-elicited sera against Nipah virus were 3-fold the average titers of 14 individuals in Bangladesh who survived a Nipah virus infection. "We are grateful to our co-authors at the CDC for their contribution in assessing our vaccine against this difficult pathogen," said Pascal Brandys, co-founder and CEO of Phylex Biosciences. "The results confirm the strong advantage of our mRNA vaccine encoding for a highly immunogenic nanoparticle, as compared with a variety of other technologies." "Our vaccine combines the advantages of mRNA for speed of manufacturing and development and a nanoparticle for efficacy after one dose," Brandys continued. "We will aggressively pursue the clinical development of our vaccine candidate to initiate clinical trials with exposed individuals on a compassionate basis and save lives as soon as possible." About Phylex BioSciences Founded at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic by genomics pioneer Pascal Brandys and virologist Jens Herold, Phylex BioSciences is the first company to pursue the development of a mRNA nanoparticle vaccine against the Nipah virus. SOURCE Phylex BioSciences

Scientists from the UKHSA will use a model of Nipah virus disease to evaluate vaccines developed by the Pirbright Institute. Credit: FOTOGRIN via Shutterstock. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has teamed up with the Pirbright Institute to develop vaccines against henipavirus – a group of viruses such as Nipah and Hendra viruses, which can cause severe respiratory and neurological diseases in humans through contact with infected animals. As part of the research, funded by the Medical Research Council, scientists from the UKHSA will use a model of Nipah virus to evaluate vaccines developed by the Pirbright Institute. The World Health Organization has identified Nipah as a priority disease that needs urgent research due to its potential for severe outbreaks. However, it is possible that a novel virus from the whole genus can emerge. Therefore, the aim of the collaboration is to develop a vaccine that provides cross protection against the whole genus of viruses, rather than specific ones. In August 2023, the UKHSA launched the Vaccine Development Evaluation Centre (VDEC), whose key focus is on pathogens for which no vaccines exist or for which vaccines are not regulated in the country. There is no approved vaccine available for the Nipah virus. Located at the Porton Down site of the UKHSA, over 200 scientists will work on almost 100 projects, facilitating the development of new vaccines by testing and assessing them against a range of threats that can lead to a health emergency. The facility will operate throughout the vaccine lifecycle, from product design to the assessment of effectiveness, as new variants emerge. See Also: AstraZeneca snaps up Amolyt for $1.05bn to boost rare disease pipeline Merck to start trials investigating single dosing regimen of HPV vaccine In the announcement accompanying the collaboration, project lead for Pirbright Dalan Bailey said: “Understanding whether vaccines for Nipah or other henipaviruses can provide cross-protection against related viruses is a really important first step in the development of broadly acting vaccines. This is especially important as we try to build more robust pandemic preparedness plans in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, and we are delighted to be working with UKHSA on this project.” In January 2024, Oxford University in the UK initiated a first-in-human clinical trial to evaluate ChAdOx1 NipahB, a Nipah virus vaccine. Enrolling 51 individuals, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) is providing funding for the trial.

12月8日，中国科学院上海免疫与感染研究所蓝佳明研究员与中国科学院武汉病毒研究所单超、袁志明团队、中国科学技术大学Sandra Chiu团队合作，在国际学术期刊JCI insight发表了题为Vaccines based on the fusion protein consensus sequence protect Syrian hamsters from Nipah virus infection的研究论文。该研究通过计算机辅助设计尼帕病毒多个毒株的consensus序列，基于这一序列设计的尼帕病毒疫苗有望进一步开发为尼帕病毒广谱疫苗。尼帕病毒是副粘病毒科亨尼帕病毒属的单负链RNA病毒，蝙蝠为其自然宿主，可经猪、马等中间宿主间接传播给人，也可直接感染人类，导致神经系统和/或呼吸系统疾病，病死率达40-70%。由于其传播容易、发病迅速、症状严重、病死率高，且缺乏特异性的防控措施，尼帕病毒被列为C类优先病原体和生物安全4级（BSL-4）病原体；它也被世界卫生组织（WHO）列为优先关注的十大感染性疾病之一，研发有效的尼帕病毒疫苗对预防该病毒引起的感染具有重要的理论和现实意义。图1.计算机辅助设计的尼帕病毒疫苗完全保护金黄地鼠免受致死量尼帕病毒感染尼帕病毒包膜上有F和G两种糖蛋白，两者均可诱导高效中和抗体产生，常被单独或联合用于尼帕病毒疫苗的靶抗原。目前，科学家已鉴定出尼帕病毒多个毒株，其中包括马来西亚（NiV-M）和孟加拉国（NiV-B）两个代表性毒株，它们在传播途径、感染引起的症状和病死率中均有显著差别。本研究通过对GenBank上公布的尼帕病毒序列进行深入研究，针对F蛋白通过生物信息学分析，设计了一个潜在预防不同尼帕病毒株感染的Consensus序列。随后将该序列分别插入黑猩猩腺病毒载体和质粒pVAX1载体中，开发了重组腺病毒载体疫苗AdC68-F和DNA疫苗pVAX1-F。动物试验结果表明，AdC68-F、pVAX1-F单独或联合使用（pVAX1-F/AdC68-F）后，均可在小鼠体内诱导快速和高效的体液和细胞免疫应答。疫苗免疫金黄地鼠后，分别用致死量NiV-M和NiV-B感染，发现接种疫苗组地鼠至感染后21天均未出现任何临床症状，肺、脑和脾脏等组织均未测到病毒和核酸（图1）。这些结果表明，基于F蛋白consensus序列设计的尼帕病毒疫苗对代表性的尼帕病毒毒株提供了完全保护，有潜力进一步开发为尼帕病毒广谱疫苗。蓝佳明研究员与中国科学院武汉病毒研究所单超研究员、袁志明研究员、姚艳丰高级实验师,中国科学技术大学Sandra Chiu教授为该篇论文的共同通讯作者。感谢天津医科大学周东明教授提供AdC68质粒载体。该研究得到了国家自然科学基金、上海市实验动物专项、中国科学院先导B专项等项目的支持。中国科学院上海免疫与感染研究所蓝佳明研究员长期致力于尼帕病毒、埃博拉病毒、新冠病毒、中东呼吸综合征冠状病毒等高生物安全等级病毒的疫苗研发工作。本研究是继2023年11月4日蓝佳明与武汉病毒研究所单超、袁志明团队合作在npj Vaccines发表题为Both chimpanzee adenovirus-vectored and DNA vaccines induced long-term immunity against Nipah virus infection的科研论文之后，两团队再次紧密合作，推进尼帕病毒疫苗研发的另一力作。文章链接：https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37917215/本文仅用于学术分享，转载请注明出处。若有侵权，请联系微信：bioonSir 删除或修改！