Research Roundup: A 'Google' for biomedical data, alarming surge in drug-resistant HIV, and CEPI partners with Valneva to develop Chikungunya vaccine

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. Researchers at Purdue University have created a device that can rapidly detect the bacterium which causes cholera in water. Unlike traditional tests, which require a well-equipped laboratory and three to five days to process results, this device acts as a portable “cholera detection lab” built around a smartphone. A water sample is placed in a single-use, disposable test kit which uses chemicals that make copies of the toxin gene in cholera bacteria in a process called amplification. If the water becomes more viscous, it signals that harmful bacteria has been identified and the imaging system on the smartphone will capture the results, which can be sent to researchers or charities who can address the water quality issue. The device is currently in early field testing. The nonprofit Sabin Vaccine Institute (Sabin) has acquired the rights from GSK to develop three experimental, single-dose vaccines for Marburg virus, Ebola Sudan, and Ebola Zaire—the strain of the Ebola virus responsible for the yearlong outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Sabin will develop these vaccines in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health Vaccine Research Center, whose scientists originally designed the vaccines which all use the same approach to induce immunity. Though the vaccines have not been tested in phase 3 trials, which would show their efficacy in preventing infection, a phase 2 trial conducted at the end of the West African Ebola outbreak showed that the Ebola Zaire vaccine produced an antibody response in most recipients that lasted up to a year. The largest-ever trial of a preventive Ebola vaccine in Uganda began last week, amid fears of the virus spreading from neighboring DRC. The two-year trial, which will test a two-dose Ebola candidate vaccine developed by Janssen Pharmaceuticals of Johnson & Johnson, will involve 800 participants picked from core health workers and non-core personnel in the Mbarara district, located in the southwest of the country, and will assess the vaccine’s safety and efficacy in inducing an immune response to prevent the disease. The trial will be conducted by both Ugandan and international researchers and is sponsored by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Ebola has killed more than 1,800 people in the DRC during this latest outbreak, which began over a year ago.

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. The World Health Organization (WHO) has changed its guidelines to strongly recommend the antiretroviral medication dolutegravir (DTG) as the preferred first- and second-line treatment for all people living with HIV, including pregnant women. Last year, many countries advised pregnant women, or those who might become pregnant, to take efavirenz (EFV) instead of DTG after a study in Botswana found a possible link between DTG and serious birth defects in newborns. Presenting new research from the ongoing study at the International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Science, WHO stated that the potential risk for birth defects was significantly lower than previously estimated, with benefits for women outweighing drawbacks. Preliminary testing of an implant containing a new antiretroviral drug, islatravir, in a dozen patients over 12 weeks suggests that it may protect against HIV infection for a full year. The implant, a matchstick-sized plastic rod inserted just under the skin of the upper arm, slowly releases tiny doses of islatravir, which lingers in the body for a relatively long time so it can be given less than other medications. Unlike some other HIV drugs, islatravir is absorbed into the anal and genital tissues where most infections start and is less likely to give rise to drug-resistant strains since it attacks a different stage in the infection process. The implant could help those at risk of HIV infection, particularly women in Africa, who are looking for prevention methods that are easier to use and conceal. Large clinical testing is required to determine the safety and efficacy of this implant in protecting against HIV infection. Malaria drugs are failing at an alarming rate in Southeast Asia as drug-resistant strains of the disease emerge, according to two new reports released in The Lancet—prompting global concern that this drug resistance could spread around the world. One of the studies, performed in the greater Mekong region, compared a new three-drug malaria regimen against the conventional two-drug artemisinin combo—used to treat the majority of malaria cases—when researchers noticed the antimalarial drugs in the current regimen weren’t fully wiping out the deadly parasites. The overall failure rate was 50 percent, but in some parts of the region the drugs weren’t working nine times out of ten. If drug resistance to first-line malaria drugs continues to spread, it could mean major setbacks to the global effort to control the mosquito-borne disease.