Immunogenic Sugar Moieties as Versatile Vaccine Candidates
Abstract
Topic Area(s): This study focuses on “development of flexible vaccine technologies that can be used to rapidly respond to emerging and re-emerging infectious disease threats,” which is highlighted in the topic area of “Vaccine Development for Infectious Disease.” Overview: The human body comes in contact with many microorganisms, such as viruses, bacteria, and parasites. Some may cause severe illness and can be transmitted from person to person or even from animals to humans. Since the 1970s, about 40 infectious diseases have been discovered, including emerging diseases such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), the Ebola and Chikungunya viruses, avian flu, swine flu, and most recently the Zika virus. The World Health Organization (WHO) warned that infectious diseases are emerging at a rate not seen before. This may be a result of the rapid growth of the global economy in the modern world. People now travel much more frequently and far greater distances than in the past, and they live in urbanized, densely populated areas. The potential for emerging infectious diseases to spread rapidly and cause global epidemics is a growing concern. Developing flexible vaccine technologies that can be used to rapidly respond to emerging and re-emerging infectious disease threats is a pressing need in current global “biodefense” efforts. Proposal Idea: Identifying targets for vaccinations that will help the body fight a broad spectrum of viral diseases is highly challenging because these organisms — like the people they infect — have many genetic differences. We propose a vaccine that will help the human body produce antibodies that will kill or remove many different genetic types of viruses but not harm normal cells. Innovation: We have already discovered a unique vaccine method that targets the sugar coats of viruses; such vaccines are safe for human use. Impact: This study will demonstrate how to develop a type of “versatile” vaccines to prevent infection by different viruses and determine whether and how genetic background influences antibody responses. We also hope to learn more about the “molecular signature” of antibodies; this will pave the way for a new generation of vaccines and therapies to treat diseases that are caused by viral epidemics.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Oct 29, 2018
- Source ID
- W81XWH1810604
Entities
People
- Denong Wang
Organizations
- SRI International
- United States Army