The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) started a clinical trial to test a mosquito saliva vaccine bound to protect people of mosquito-transmitted illnesses. If this vaccine proves to be successful, then we will never be infected with diseases like the dengue fever, West Nile fever, malaria, and Zika. Scientists are also bound to annihilate mosquitoes’ ability to transmit these types of illnesses.
- The NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland is currently developing a clinical trial regarding a mosquito saliva vaccine.
- Scientists are bound to develop a vaccine which could annihilate the effects of mosquito-borne diseases.
- They are bound to test 60 participants split intro three different groups.
The study is currently under development at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Specialists want to examine the safety of this vaccine and its ability to build an immune response to the diseases previously mentioned. The experimental vaccine is called AGS-v, and it was created by the pharmaceutical company SEEK in London. The company has formed a partnership with hVIVO in London.
Moreover, the consulting group known as Halloran has offered periodic advice to both pharmaceutical companies. Unlike other mosquito saliva vaccines bound to combat mosquito-transmitted illness, this vaccine was specially created to trigger an immune response to the saliva of a mosquito, rather than protecting people from a particular parasite or virus carried by mosquitoes.
The experimental vaccine contains four synthetic proteins which are similar to the ones produced in a mosquito’s salivary glands. These proteins were created to develop antibodies when they are vaccinated in a patient. When a person is bitten by a mosquito which carries a disease, then the vaccine will trigger a modified allergic response which can prevent an infection.
Anthony S. Fauci, the director of NIAID, stated that mosquitoes are known to determine more human illnesses and deaths compared to other animals. He noted that the development of this vaccine is a revolutionary and novel concept which could constitute a massive public health advance if successful.
The clinical trial is conducted by Matthew J. Memoli, M.D. and a director of the Clinical Studies Unit in NIAID’s Laboratory of Infectious Diseases. The trial is expected to recruit about 60 healthy participants with ages between 18 and 50. Participants will be assigned to get 1 of 3 vaccine regimes. The first group of adults will receive two different injections of the AGS-v vaccine 21 days apart.
The second group will get two separate injections of the vaccine combined with an adjuvant 21 days apart. The adjuvant represents a mixture of water and oil usually added to improve the immune responses. The third group will only receive two placebo injections.
Image courtesy of: wikipedia
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.