Global health and medical research saved from the chopping block in 2018 spending bill

  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. In this regular feature on Breakthroughs, we highlight some of the most interesting reads in global health research from the past week.   A new study suggests that a newly discovered class of antibiotics could potentially wipe out drug-resistant staph infections caused by MRSA, raising hope for progress in the fight against antimicrobial resistance. Scientists at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence focused on MRSA because infection produces “persister” cells—cells that evade common antibiotic treatment by lying dormant in the body. The research team tested thousands of lab-made molecules on roundworms infected with MRSA and discovered two molecules from the retinoid family that not only killed normal MRSA cells, but also the “persister” cells as well. While these retinoids were not effective against another group of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that cause urinary tract infections, pneumonia, and other conditions; they still hold promise in treating persistent and antibiotic-resistant forms of MRSA, which can be lethal to patients. Scientists at Yale University have developed a new experimental RNA therapy, delivered via the nose, to treat West Nile Virus infections. In mice studies, the therapy reduced the viral load in the brain, allowing the organism’s immune system to properly destroy the remainder of the virus throughout the body as well as develop long-term protection against future exposure. By using RNA molecules that are effective against flaviviruses combined with a peptide derived from the rabies virus that is able to interfere with nerve cells and delivering them through the nose, scientists were able to bypass the blood-brain barrier to kill the virus in the brain with 90 percent effectiveness in the mice studies. There is currently no approved vaccine or effective therapy to treat West Nile Virus. A new study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases suggests that the medication ivermectin can make human blood deadly to malaria-carrying mosquitoes, offering a new potential strategy to fight this deadly disease. Researchers at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine found that three high doses of invermectin—a medicine originally developed to combat river blindness and elephantiasis—made human blood toxic to mosquitoes for 28 days after the third treatment, while producing few side effects in patients. In lab tests, 97 percent of mosquitoes died within two weeks of feeding on the blood with ivermectin. While more research is needed, this discovery could offer a potential new approach to complement existing malaria control programs.

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. In this regular feature on Breakthroughs, we highlight some of the most interesting reads in global health research from the past week. In mouse studies, scientists at the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research have discovered a key step in the digestion process of hookworms that can be targeted to potentially disrupt the parasite’s development and subsequent survival in human blood. Scientists first proved that the mouse-infecting hookworms behaved similarly to human-infecting hookworms. Then, researchers tracked the digestion processes of the hookworms to understand how the hookworm digested heme—the molecular component of hemoglobin. Scientists tested a common chemical compound—quinolones—known to disrupt malaria and schistosoma parasites, and they found that the compound performed well in disrupting the digestion process of the hookworms. Though quinolones are not a viable treatment option for the long run—primarily due to widespread antibiotic resistance—scientists are optimistic that they’ve found a viable avenue to start exploring drugs and vaccine candidates that could affect hookworms in a similar way. Researchers found that revaccination with the Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine could prevent sustained tuberculosis (TB) infection in adolescents, according to results from a phase 2 clinical trial. Researchers randomly assigned 990 healthy adolescents in South Africa who had been immunized with BCG as infants to one of three groups: A placebo group, an experimental vaccine group, and the BCG vaccine group, with the intent to monitor the rate at which individuals tested positive for TB. Researchers found that BCG’s efficacy of preventing sustained TB infection was 45 percent, 15 percent higher than the experimental vaccine, which was 30 percent. These results could help optimize BCG vaccination approaches and inform TB vaccine development efforts. A joint venture in Nigeria recently announced their locally produced vaccines will be ready to hit Nigerian markets in the next three to four years, marking the first time since 1991 that Nigerian-produced vaccines will be available to the public. The joint venture, composed of the Nigerian government and May&Baker Nigeria, targets local manufacturers of vaccines to form partnerships and work toward developing an array of vaccines for the Nigerian public. While the types of vaccines to be developed have not been disclosed to the public, the country’s former vaccine production laboratory tackled major public health threats like smallpox, yellow fever, and rabies. The government-run laboratory closed in 1991. This new joint venture plans to incorporate government support, private industry, and partnerships to bring relevant vaccines to the people.