Drugs/Therapy

New Study On Vaccine To Help Protect Against Mosquito-borne Diseases

By Anne Collins | Update Date: Feb 23, 2017 07:40 AM EST

Scientists from the National Institutes of Health are looking for 60 volunteers for phase 1 clinical trials of a new kind of mosquito vaccine. The new vaccine aims to act against the mosquito's saliva and protect people from mosquito-borne diseases. By triggering the immune system to rev up in response to mosquito bites, the vaccine aims to protect against multiple infections.

The experimental vaccine is being developed by two London companies. Rather than having a separate vaccine for one mosquito-borne disease, the researchers aim to develop an all-in-one vaccine that could fight mosquito-borne diseases like Dengue Fever, Malaria, Zika and West Nile virus.

The Edition Time reported that SEEK, a London-based pharmaceutical company had created the vaccine called AGS-v. It is designed to trigger an immune response to mosquito saliva instead of a specific virus or parasite. It is made up of four synthetic proteins from the salivary glands of mosquitoes and is designed to induce antibodies in a vaccinated patient to cause a modified allergic response and prevent infection.

The clinical trial will consist of 60 healthy adults that are between 18 to 50 years old. They will be divided into three groups. The first group will receive two injections of AGS-v 21 day apart, the second group will received two injections of AGS-v combined with an adjuvant of an oil and water mixture 21 days apart. Lastly, the third group will receive two injections with placebos of sterile water 21 days apart.

According to WLFI News, NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases researchers will give volunteers either a vaccine or dummy shots and will then return to NIH hospital in Bethesda, Maryland to be bitten by mosquitoes through a special netted device. The mosquitoes are infection-free and volunteers' immune responses will be monitored and tracked.

The Phase 1 clinical trial is expected to be complete by summer 2018.

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