Live Attenuated Dengue Vaccine Study
Researchers at the University of Vermont (UVM) Vaccine Testing Center, along with collaborators at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, have been working since 2008 to develop a dengue vaccine that will protect against all four dengue strains. The team’s latest research, published in Science Translational Medicine (March 2016), reported promising results from clinical trials on a new tetravalent vaccine (TV003) that is very effective at preventing dengue infection and is likely to require only a single dose.
Approximately 40 percent of the world’s population – 2.5 billion people – are at risk of contracting dengue, a viral infection spread by mosquitos in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Dengue fever is best known for producing a high fever, rash and joint pain, but may also cause very serious disease, including hemorrhage and shock, as well as death. Development of vaccines for dengue has been complicated, since disease can be caused by any of four dengue virus serotypes and the vaccine must be tetravalent, providing equal protection against all four serotypes.
The NIH dengue vaccine was designed by Stephen Whitehead, Ph.D., a senior scientist and virologist at the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases at the NIAID. Clinical research was performed at both UVM and Johns Hopkins, where testing was led by Associate Professor Anna Durbin, M.D., corresponding author on the paper. In addition to Kirkpatrick and Pierce, UVM Vaccine Testing Center team members involved in this publication include Sean Diehl, Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine; Catherine Larsson, research specialist, and Marya Carmolli, senior research technician.
Read the Science Translational Medicine Article.