Advancing a multivalent 'Pan-anthelmintic' vaccine against soil-transmitted nematode infections

Expert Rev Vaccines. 2014 Mar;13(3):321-31. doi: 10.1586/14760584.2014.872035. Epub 2014 Jan 6.

Abstract

The Sabin Vaccine Institute Product Development Partnership is developing a Pan-anthelmintic vaccine that simultaneously targets the major soil-transmitted nematode infections, in other words, ascariasis, trichuriasis and hookworm infection. The approach builds off the current bivalent Human Hookworm Vaccine now in clinical development and would ultimately add both a larval Ascaris lumbricoides antigen and an adult-stage Trichuris trichiura antigen from the parasite stichosome. Each selected antigen would partially reproduce the protective immunity afforded by UV-attenuated Ascaris eggs and Trichuris stichosome extracts, respectively. Final antigen selection will apply a ranking system that includes the evaluation of expression yields and solubility, feasibility of process development and the absence of circulating antigen-specific IgE among populations living in helminth-endemic regions. Here we describe a five year roadmap for the antigen discovery, feasibility and antigen selection, which will ultimately lead to the scale-up expression, process development, manufacture, good laboratory practices toxicology and preclinical evaluation, ultimately leading to Phase 1 clinical testing.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Ancylostomatoidea / immunology
  • Animals
  • Anthelmintics
  • Antigens, Helminth / immunology
  • Ascariasis / immunology
  • Ascariasis / prevention & control*
  • Ascaris lumbricoides / immunology
  • Hookworm Infections / immunology
  • Hookworm Infections / prevention & control*
  • Humans
  • Protozoan Vaccines / immunology*
  • Soil / parasitology
  • Trichuriasis / immunology
  • Trichuriasis / prevention & control*
  • Trichuris / immunology

Substances

  • Anthelmintics
  • Antigens, Helminth
  • Protozoan Vaccines
  • Soil