Breakthroughs Blog: Research Roundup

Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email. Last week, scientists announced a new project, funded by Wellcome, to expand the use of a low-cost, field-deployable, and real-time viral genome sequencing technique that has been widely used to detect COVID-19 variants to cover a wider variety of pathogens, helping public health officials surveil known and unknown pathogens of concern and respond to outbreaks more quickly and effectively. The project, which includes an international team of researchers, is supported by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the Asia Pathogen Genomics Initiative, and the World Health Organization International Pathogen Surveillance Network, which will help ensure that the system is broadly accessible around the world, even in places with limited resources and laboratory infrastructure.Harvard University researchers have found a drug combination that can kill the malaria parasite directly in mosquitoes so they can no longer spread the disease. Given the drugs can be absorbed the legs of mosquitoes, the goal is to create a cheap, long-lasting tool that could be applied alongside insecticides to bed nets in malaria-endemic regions. As resistance to the insecticides used on bed nets rises, this new method is less likely to lead to the emergence of resistance. The drugs, which were tested on materials similar to bed nets in a laboratory setting, killed 100 percent of the parasites. The method will be next tested in a real-world study in Ethiopia.A research team at Institut Pasteur has started a project testing a new rapid diagnostic that could detect the presence of the Plasmodium vivax malaria parasites early on after the initial mosquito bite—before symptoms arise—, helping patients receive appropriate treatment faster. Specifically, the researchers intend to design a test that can detect the presence of the parasite in blood samples from individuals whose infection is in the dormant liver stage, when it is difficult to detect infection. The project, which will run through 2030, has received around €6 million in funding from the European Union, as well as the British and Swiss governments.

Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email. A new study looking at data from two separate Phase 1 clinical trials shows that a targeted vaccine strategy can successfully activate early immune responses relevant to HIV, a significant advance in longtime efforts to develop an HIV vaccine. A persistent challenge in advancing HIV vaccines has been finding a way to train the immune system to produce antibodies that target many variants of the tricky, rapidly mutating virus. The study, conducted by an international team of scientists from IAVI and Scripps Research, included nearly 80 participants from North America and Africa, helping ensure a future vaccine has global potential. One of the trials used a stepwise vaccination strategy, administering two doses sequentially to guide the immune system to develop antibodies, while the second trial found that an initial dose could successfully activate the desired immune cells. Both vaccines used an mRNA vaccine platform, enabling faster production and clinical testing.A recently published study found that a new water-soluble formulation of the only drug available to treat helminths, or parasitic worms, can achieve the same effect as the currently available tablet form at half the usual dose. Praziquantel is currently available as large tablets that are bitter and difficult to swallow, especially for children and pets. The new formulation can be dissolved in water and was shown to be more efficiently absorbed, enabling patients to receive a smaller dose without sacrificing efficacy. Further clinical testing is needed before the new formulation can be brought to market, but if it continues to demonstrate success, the new formulation could be a game-changer in addressing helminths, which affect 400 million people worldwide.

Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email. A new study found that LC16m8, an attenuated vaccinia virus strain originally developed in Japan for smallpox and later approved for mpox in 2022, induced strong responses and was safe in mice, monkeys, and healthy adult humans, potentially paving the way for the development of broadly effective mpox vaccines. The researchers vaccinated mice with LC16m8 to see how it protected them from mpox, later vaccinating monkeys and healthy adult volunteers as well to study their blood samples for immune responses and monitor them for safety. The results underscore LC16m8’s potential as a safe, effective, and scalable choice for mpox vaccination and also provide a blueprint for developing next-generation vaccines against other poxviruses and emerging pathogens.Researchers from Abertay University and Bangor University have developed a prototype blood test that can detect up to five infections at the point of care, providing results quickly via a smartphone app. The tool, which was piloted using tuberculosis as a test case, showed high sensitivity and an ability to accurately identify cases. The speed and convenience, as well as the much lower cost compared to lab testing, demonstrate the test’s potential to be a game changer in ensuring access to timely testing and diagnosis, particularly in remote locations and other settings lacking laboratory infrastructure.  The results of a Phase 3 clinical trial published last week found that Moderna’s combination COVID and flu shot outperformed existing individual vaccines for both viruses. The combination shot uses the same mRNA technology as Moderna’s approved vaccine for COVID-19, but there are no currently approved mRNA flu vaccines. In a trial that included more than 8,000 adults, the combination vaccines generated higher antibody levels for COVID and all but one influenza strain in trial participants who got the combination vaccine compared to those who got individual vaccines. A combination vaccine could help boost vaccination levels for both viruses, and an mRNA vaccine, in particular, could also speed up production because they are faster to make than current flu shots.

Interested in more global health innovation news? Every week GHTC scours media reports worldwide to deliver essential global health R&D news and content to your inbox. Sign up now to receive our weekly R&D News Roundup email. Last week, the US Department of Health and Human Services announced a $500 million investment into a vaccine project under a new initiative called Generation Gold Standard, which aims to advance universal influenza vaccines, hoping to get a vaccine into clinical trials next year and approved by 2029. The initiative, funding for which will come from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, seems to be replacing Project NextGen, which had previously funded research into potential COVID-19 vaccines and treatments. Some experts and officials have expressed surprise at the direction of the initiative and the size of the investment.Scientists have discovered that a device used to diagnose bacterial meningitis in blood can also measure it in cerebrospinal fluid, helping speed accurate diagnosis and treatment of the illness, which is the most dangerous form of meningitis and a significant global health threat. The device has demonstrated high sensitivity in multiple cohorts of patients and it’s also affordable and delivers results within a half hour after spinal tap. The test was developed at an impressive speed, now available to patients within just a year of its discovery.Newly shared results from a clinical trial from the National Cancer Institute seem to confirm that a single dose of the vaccine used to prevent human papillomavirus (HPV) virus infection is just as effective as two, a finding that could transform efforts to reach the millions of children globally who are not getting vaccinated according to recommendations. Expanding HPV vaccination will also help reduce the global burden of cervical cancer deaths and deaths from other HPV cancers. While two doses are currently recommended, reducing the required dosage could make dissemination much easier and cheaper for many countries.