Report
Teaser, summary, work performed and final results
Periodic Reporting for period 1 - TracVac (Developing a Chlamydia Trachomatis vaccine)
Teaser
\"Chlamydia trachomatis is the world\'s leading infectious cause of blindness. WHO estimates globally 146 million active cases of the disease, mainly among children and women. Current control measures are based on \"\"SAFE\"\" strategy, Surgery for trichiasis, Antibiotics, Facial...
Summary
\"Chlamydia trachomatis is the world\'s leading infectious cause of blindness. WHO estimates globally 146 million active cases of the disease, mainly among children and women. Current control measures are based on \"\"SAFE\"\" strategy, Surgery for trichiasis, Antibiotics, Facial cleanliness and Environmental improvement. WHO supports the alliance for the global elimination of blinding trachoma. This goal will be impossible to reach with the current technology and there is critical need for a vaccine to completely control trachoma in endemic areas and to ensure that trachoma will be fully eliminated as a public health problem. The TracVac project consortium (TRACVAC) is multi-disciplinary and consists of European experts in the field of Infectious Diseases, Clinical Trial, Vaccine R&D and Animal Models. The goal of the project is to eliminate the global problem of blinding trachoma through the development of a safe and efficacious vaccine. It consist of a two track project strategy.
Track 1: Develop a protective vaccine against ocular Chlamydia trachomatis infections.
The objective is to generate a vaccine that protect against the bacterial strains causing ocular Chlamydia trachomatis infections. To accomplish this, we study naturally protected individuals from endemic regions and identify key epitopes, which will subsequently be incorporated into vaccine constructs and tested for protective efficacy.
Track 2: Develop and clinical evaluate an immunization protocol for optimal ocular mucosal immunity.
The second main objective is to develop an immunization protocol for optimal ocular mucosal immunity. To do this we will test different vaccination strategies for ocular responses and protection against challenge. Subsequently the best strategy will be tested in a clinical phase I evaluation.
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Work performed
Track 1.
• Progress has been made in the identification of key antibody epitopes recognized by naturally infected individuals, and some epitopes to be included in a vaccine construct has been selected
• Advances were made towards developing a toolbox of functional antibody assays to evaluate responses from naturally infected individuals, i.e. a novel high-throughput in vitro neutralization assays as well as a phagocytosis assay
• PBMCs from patients have been selected for B cell cloning, and B cell cloning is ongoing with the goal of identifying B cell clones secreting neutralizing antibodies
Track 2.
• We have established an ocular non-human primate (NHP) challenge model using a Chlamydia trachomatis serovar B strain
• Dose titration experiments have been performed and a dose for the challenge study has been selected
• A vaccine NHP trial has been initiated, testing different vaccine adjuvants and immunization schedules
• In preparation for the clinical trial planned for 2019, a toxicology package/safety reporting was determined
• GMP manufacturing of vaccine antigen and adjuvant was completed
• Communication and dissemination was initiated as planned and an open access public website was set up
Final results
TracVac project will significantly accelerate the trachoma vaccine development. The project combines knowledge from clinical development of genital chlamydia vaccine with cutting-edge adjuvant / delivery technologies to address safety and immunogenicity of a trachoma vaccine with the aim of inducing ocular immunity, which is a critical bottleneck for a trachoma vaccine. TracVac will establish an advanced animal mode that will provide safety, immunogenicity and efficacy data for the vaccine. The development of a protective vaccine against trachoma is expected to complement current control measures and be an important tool for the alliance for the global elimination of blinding trachoma. TracVac will contribute to knowledge about novel adjuvants and routes of immunization, which will aid the future development of alternate routes of vaccine administration. TracVac will set up a pipeline leading from preclinical development to initial human trials of vaccines against Chlamydia, paving the way for vaccines with pronounced impact socio-economic impact.
Website & more info
More info: http://www.trachoma-vaccine.org.