Research Roundup: AI-assisted TB drug discovery, Nasal COVID-19 vaccine trial, Uganda Ebola vaccine trial

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. Last week, the Gates Foundation, the Novo Nordisk Foundation, and Wellcome announced the launch of the Gram-Negative Antibiotic Discovery Innovator, a new $50 million effort to boost the discovery of new antibiotics for gram-negative bacteria as the global threat of antimicrobial resistance continues to rise and there remains a lacking pipeline of novel antibiotics. The effort will function as a consortium, where multiple funders, research institutions, and industry partners share data and work collectively. Specifically, the project will focus on the discovery of direct-acting small-molecule antibiotics with broad-spectrum activity against Enterobacteriaceae, with Klebsiella species selected as the pathogen to be used in all proposed projects.An innovative, one-dose vaccine designed to offer high-level protection against malaria could transform global malaria efforts if proven effective in further studies. The Sanaria® PfSPZ-LARC2 Vaccine, designed by Sanaria and the Seattle Children’s Research Institute’s Center for Global Infectious Disease Research, uses advanced genetic engineering to delete two critical genes from the malaria parasite, ensuring that the parasite cannot advance to the blood stage and that the vaccine cannot cause or transmit disease. A pivotal study published last month demonstrated the remarkable potential of this approach, and clinical trials are scheduled for later this year.Last week, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) announced $5 million in funding to Ethris to support proof-of-concept research of spray-dried RNA vaccines that remain stable at room temperature and are suitable for mucosal delivery, an approach that could make these vaccines more accessible in low-resource settings and faster to roll out during outbreaks. The spray-drying technique is widely used for other health technologies and applying it to RNA vaccines helps minimize dependence on cold storage and complex delivery systems, especially in low-resource settings. Nasal delivery medicines are also well-established but used with RNA vaccines, this approach could also support their ability to remain stable and could help to offer mucosal immunity, which scientists believe can help reduce virus transmission.

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. On World Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) Day last week, the Global Health Innovative Technology (GHIT) Fund announced that it is investing $12.7 million across eight projects to further the development of new technologies to help address NTDs and a range of other diseases. Specifically, the funding aims to further the development of new diagnostics and drugs for leishmaniasis, dengue, malaria, Lassa fever, Rift Valley fever, Ebola, and Marburg, which is being led by various global product development partnerships and companies, including Medicines for Malaria Venture, PATH, and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative.   Newly published research led by the global collaborative endTB project found three new safe and effective drug regimens to treat tuberculosis (TB) resistant to rifampin, the most effective first-line TB antibiotic currently available. These findings help expand the toolkit of treatments for patients with drug-resistant TB in the face of rising resistance globally, offering regimens that are shorter, less toxic, and do not require injections compared to currently available options. The new regimens use two drugs, bedaquiline and delamanid, which have been in use for just over a decade, in combination with older medications. The trial, launched in 2017, involved hundreds of patients across seven countries, including populations often excluded from clinical trials: children, people infected with HIV or hepatitis C, and women who became pregnant while on treatment, ensuring these groups are not excluded from new treatment recommendations.A recently published study found that a prophylactic antibody-based immune therapy protected monkeys against severe disease caused by H5N1 avian influenza, as the outbreak in the United States continues to cause concern. The broadly neutralizing antibody targets a relatively stable region of the virus and is therefore less prone to losing its efficacy than antibodies targeting viral structures that are prone to mutate, helping to ensure that the protection conferred by the therapy can withstand the possible emergence of virus variants. If proven successful in further studies, the therapy could be used to prevent severe disease in at-risk populations and protect first responders and other health care providers in the early stages of an outbreak, and more broadly, this research helps set the stage for the development of medical countermeasures in the case of future outbreaks of influenza.