New vaccines for neglected parasitic diseases and dengue

Abstract

Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a significant source of morbidity and socioeconomic burden among the world's poor. Virtually all of the 2.4 billion people who live on less than $2 per d, more than a third of the world's population, are at risk for these debilitating NTDs. Although chemotherapeutic measures exist for many of these pathogens, they are not sustainable countermeasures on their own because of rates of reinfection, risk of drug resistance, and inconsistent maintenance of drug treatment programs. Preventative and therapeutic NTD vaccines are needed as long-term solutions. Because there is no market in the for-profit sector of vaccine development for these pathogens, much of the effort to develop vaccines is driven by nonprofit entities, mostly through product development partnerships. This review describes the progress of vaccines under development for many of the NTDs, with a specific focus on those about to enter or that are currently in human clinical trials. Specifically, we report on the progress on dengue, hookworm, leishmaniasis, schistosomiasis, Chagas disease, and onchocerciasis vaccines. These products will be some of the first with specific objectives to aid the world's poorest populations.

Keywords: AIDS; CL; DENV; DENV-1; DHF; E; GLA-AF; GLA-SE; GSK; GlaxoSmith-Kline; HHV; HIV; IDRI; Infectious Disease Research Institute; ML; MPL-SE; NIH; NTD; Na-APR-1(M74); Na-GST-1; National Institutes of Health; Necator americanus aspartic protease 1 (M74); Necator americanus glutathione s-transferase 1; PDP; PIV; PKDL; Schistosoma mansoni tetraspanin protein 2; Sm-TSP-2; TDEN; TLR; VL; WRAIR; Walter Reed Army Institute of Research; acquired immune deficiency syndrome; cutaneous leishmaniasis; dengue hemorrhagic fever; dengue virus; dengue-1 virus; envelope gene; glucopyranosyl lipid A aqueous formulation; glucopyranosyl lipid A stable emulsion; human hookworm vaccine; human immunodeficiency virus; membrane gene; monophosphoryl lipid A stable emulsion; mucosal/mucocutaneous leishmaniasis; neglected tropical disease; post-Kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis; prM; product development partnership; purified inactivated virus; tetravalent dengue vaccine; toll-like receptor; visceral leishmaniasis.