Rational Vaccines, a company focused on revolutionizing the treatment and prevention of herpes to eradicate the disease, announced that the Company’s attenuated herpes simplex virus type-1 (HSV-1)-vaccine RVx1001 can be utilized as a viral vaccine vector to protect against malaria infections.
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The research was conducted by a team of scientists from Louisiana State University (LSU) School of Veterinary Medicine led by Konstantin G. Kousoulas, Ph.D., professor of Virology and Biotechnology, and vice president of scientific affairs at Rational Vaccines, together with scientists from Bezmialem Vakif University Beykoz Institute of Life Sciences and Biotechnology in Istanbul, Turkey, led by Ahmed. S. I. Aly, Ph.D., associate professor. The study, “An Attenuated HSV-1 Derived Malaria Vaccine Expressing Liver-Stage Exported Proteins Induces Sterilizing Protection Against Infectious Sporozoite Challenge,” was published in Vaccines and can be accessed at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8875294/
The published study reported on the development of a highly efficacious trivalent malaria vaccine using the Rational Vaccines RVx1001 vaccine as a vector. The construction of the HSV-1 vectored vaccine expressed three liver-stage (LS) malaria parasite exported proteins (EXP1, UIS3, and TMP21) as fusion proteins with the VP26 viral capsid protein.
Results showed that intramuscular and subcutaneous immunizations of mice with a pooled vaccine, composed of the three attenuated virus strains expressing each LS antigen, induced 100 percent sterile protection against the intravenous challenge of Plasmodium yoelii 17X-NL salivary gland sporozoites.
“These data show that the Rational Vaccines HSV-1 vaccine can be effectively utilized as a vector platform to protect against malaria and other infectious diseases. The safety and adjuvant proportion of RVx1001 has been demonstrated in ocular and genital infections of mice, guinea pigs and non-human primates including infections of Severe Combined Immunodeficient (SCID) mice,” said Dr. Kousoulas.
“Despite a decades-long focus on treating malaria, almost half of the world’s population remains at risk. According to WHO, malaria case incidence reduced from 81 in 2000 to 59 in 2015 and 56 in 2019, before increasing again to 59 in 2020. The eradication of malaria now seems within reach, thanks to the versatility of our HSV-based viral vector. The platform has also been proven preclinically with both a flu vaccine and cancer vaccines. Thanks to the high loading capabilities and safety of our HSV platform, opportunities are quasi limitless,” said Olivier Jarry, Chief Financial Officer, Rational Vaccines.