[ad_1]
Press release
Thursday, May 9, 2019
NIAID announces four new cooperative research centers.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, announced today the awarding of awards for the establishment of four cooperative research centers (CRC). ) focused on the development of vaccines for the prevention of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Grants, totaling $ 41.6 million over five years, will support collaborative, multi-disciplinary research on the bacteria that cause syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia. At the end of the program, each center should identify at least one candidate vaccine ready to be tested in clinical trials.
"STI research has recently evolved rapidly on many fronts and this new knowledge can now be applied to a crucial challenge that remains: the development of safe and effective vaccines against diseases that represent a significant public health burden." and growing, "said Anthony S., director of NIAID. Fauci, MD "At present, no vaccine is available to prevent syphilis, gonorrhea or chlamydia. However, research in these new centers is expected to fill the pipeline of several vaccine candidates who have possible ways to obtain a license in the United States. "
The centers funded by this new program all involve several US research institutes as well as international collaborators. Each center will conduct at least three research projects organized on a common theme. The centers will be supported by scientific hearts that will provide shared research services, including monoclonal antibody production, microbiology laboratory services and statistical expertise.
One of the centers, located at the UConn Health School of Medicine, will receive up to $ 11 million over five years to study syphilis. The center will be led by Professor Justin Radolf, MD of the UConn School of Health Medicine, and Duke University Assistant Professor Michael Anthony Moody, and Dr. Syphilis is the second leading cause of miscarriage and death at the University of Ottawa. birth in the world. If left untreated, syphilis can lead to a stroke, dementia or other neurological disorders. In 2017, 30,644 cases of early syphilis were reported in the United States, an increase of 76% since 2013, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Congenital syphilis, or infections transmitted from mother to baby during pregnancy or childbirth, has also increased in recent years. The study team will build on the results of previous research using structural biology approaches to study proteins exposed to the surface in the outer membrane of Treponema pallidum, the bacterium at the origin of syphilis, which they believe could serve as a target for a vaccine.
Two of the centers focus on gonorrhea, an STI caused by Neisseria gonorrhoeae. More than half a million gonorrhea diagnoses have been reported in the United States in 2017, an increase of 67% over 2013, according to the CDC. The fact that the bacteria responsible for gonorrhea have become resistant to most antibiotics is of particular concern. In recent years, CDC has reported that ceftriaxone is the last remaining highly effective antibiotic for the treatment of gonorrhea in the United States. In women, undiagnosed or untreated gonorrhea can lead to endometritis, pelvic inflammatory disease and infertility. Babies born to infected mothers are at increased risk of blindness.
Ann Jerse, Ph.D., of the University of Health Sciences of Uniformed Health Services, is the principal investigator of the Center for Cooperative Research on Gonorrhea Vaccines (GV CRC), which will receive up to $ 10.7 million over five years. Four research projects in the CRC GV will study immune signals likely to provide evidence that a candidate vaccine against gonorrhea has induced immunity. Among the other projects, the team will evaluate samples from people and mice previously vaccinated with a candidate vaccine, 4CMenB, for which there is evidence of protection against gonorrhea.
A center based at Georgia State University and led by Cynthia Cornelissen, Ph.D., will receive up to $ 9.25 million over five years. The projects at this center will focus on interference with the transport of bacterial nutrients as a protection strategy against gonococcal bacteria. They plan to develop candidate vaccines targeting the bacterial systems needed to acquire iron and zinc, thus depriving bacteria of the necessary nutrients. A project will model the effectiveness of potential gonococcal vaccine formulations using information on protein diversity, antibiotic resistance prevalence, and community acceptance data.
A fourth center, based at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and led by Toni Darville, MD, of the UNC School of Medicine, will receive up to $ 10.7 million over five years to advance research on the chlamydia vaccine. Chlamydia trachomatis is the most common bacterial pathogen in the world. CDC estimates that at least 1.7 million cases of chlamydia were diagnosed in the United States in 2017, with 45% of women aged 15 to 24 years old. Most infections are asymptomatic, but untreated chlamydial infections in women can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease or infertility and have been associated with ovarian cancer.
Projects planned by the UNC Chlamydia Vaccine Initiative Cooperative Research Center include a project that will follow a group of women at high risk of chlamydia re-infection for one year after antibiotic treatment to better understand the immune response to infection. A later project will use the information gathered in the study of women's immune system responses to chlamydia infection as a guide for the development of candidate vaccines capable of producing robust T-cell responses, considered essential for protection against chlamydia infection.
Additional details on the new CRCs are available at the links below. NIAID plans to award two more scholarships to this program later this year.
1 U19 AI144177-01
Award Winning Organization: University of Connecticut School of Medicine
Farmington, Connecticut
Principal Investigator: Justin Radolf, M.D.
Syphilis
1 U19 AI144180-01
Honoree: Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine
Bethesda, Maryland
Principal Investigator: Ann Jerse, Ph.D.
Focus: Gonorrhea
1 U19 AI144182-01
Laureate: Georgia State University
Atlanta, Georgia
Principal Investigator: Cynthia Nau Cornelissen, Ph.D.
Focus: Gonorrhea
1 U19 AI144181-01
Laureates: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Principal Investigator: Toni Darville, M.D.
Focus: Chlamydia
NIAID conducts and supports research – at NIH, in the United States, and around the world – to investigate the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases and to develop better ways to prevent, diagnose and treat these diseases. NIAID press releases, fact sheets and other documents are available on the NIAID website.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH):
The NIH, the country's medical research agency, has 27 institutes and centers and is part of the US Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the lead federal agency that leads and supports basic, clinical and translational medical research. She studies causes, treatments and cures for common and rare diseases. For more information on NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.
NIH … transforming discovery into health®
[ad_2]
Source link