Journalist-Kenya
[NAIROBI] The
PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI), the International AIDS Vaccine
Initiative (IAVI) up and Imperial College London today teamed up to measure the
capacity of different vaccine candidates in human clinical testing to elicit an
immune response aimed at protecting against deadly malaria parasites.
“Until now,
malaria vaccine scientists have struggled to directly compare the cellular
immune response elicited in humans by one vaccine to that of another, and this
has hampered the ability to prioritize a portfolio of vaccine candidates,” said
David C. Kaslow, MD, director of MVI in a press release.
He added, “We
are fortunate to have in IAVI and Imperial College London partners with a track
record of developing validated human immunological assays. Through this new
collaboration, we look forward to being able to make better informed decisions
about if and how various malaria vaccines elicit immune responses at the
cellular level in humans.”
The lack of
uniform validated techniques and processes among the various laboratories used
by MVI and its collaborators specifically to evaluate T-cell immunity has been one
of the obstacles to comparing the cell-mediated immunity elicited by different
malaria vaccine candidates.
In an effort to
identify a more consistent understanding of how multiple vaccine candidates
were performing at a cellular level, IAVI and its Human Immunology Laboratory
(HIL) at Imperial College London refined and validated specific tests that
measure vaccine-induced, cell-mediated immunity. The HIL is accredited in Good
Clinical Laboratory Practices (GCLP), an internationally recognized quality
standard.
In 2006, the
wider scientific community cited in its Malaria Vaccine Technology Roadmap the development of a standard set of assays with
standardized procedures to enable comparisons of the immune responses of
vaccines. This was one of several priority areas critical to accelerating the
pace of malaria vaccine development. Kaslow noted that this new collaboration
directly addresses the need identified in the Roadmap as well as a
critical gap faced in managing a portfolio of malaria vaccine projects—that is,
the need for fully comparable data to guide transparent, objective, data-driven
portfolio decisions.
“We are pleased
that IAVI can contribute to informed, data-driven decisions on vaccine
approaches,” said Margaret McGlynn, President and Chief Executive Officer of
IAVI. “Many of the methods and strategies employed in AIDS vaccine development
could be of use in efforts to develop a malaria vaccine. Our collaboration will
allow investments in AIDS vaccine R&D to benefit efforts to prevent another
disease of great relevance to global health.”
Under the
agreement, IAVI and its laboratory partner at Imperial College London will focus
on providing two types of assays for MVI and its collaborators as they move
vaccine candidates into clinical trials: the Interferon-gamma ELISpot assay and
a multi-color flow cytometry assay. These tests will be used to detect the
disease-fighting cells, or T cells, that may be present in the blood of
volunteers after vaccination.
“These tests
can provide quantitative information, such as how many cells responded to the
vaccine, along with qualitative information, such as the different cell types
that were stimulated,” said Professor Gavin Screaton, Head of the Department of
Medicine at Imperial College London. “Both types of information can be
important in determining the power of the overall vaccine-induced immune
response.”
“We’re delighted to be hosting this work at Imperial, which builds on our longstanding fruitful association with IAVI,” he said. “We’re also looking forward to working more closely with MVI as part of our commitment to vaccine research and international health.”
“We’re delighted to be hosting this work at Imperial, which builds on our longstanding fruitful association with IAVI,” he said. “We’re also looking forward to working more closely with MVI as part of our commitment to vaccine research and international health.”
MVI’s Kaslow
said the tests will help MVI prioritize investments and allow scientists to
refine vaccine strategies by showing whether a particular formulation, delivery
approach, or vaccine adjuvant elicits a superior cell-mediated immune response.
However, he emphasized that results from the assays are just one piece of
evidence that MVI will use to guide Go/No-go decisions in malaria vaccine
development. He noted that while the collaboration with IAVI and Imperial
College London will provide MVI with a central “reference” laboratory for
measuring cell-mediated immune responses, MVI encourages malaria vaccine
developers to continue performing their own tests as well.
“At MVI, we
need standardization of these assays because when we analyze the results from
various trials and look at the data on cell-mediated immunity, we need to be
sure that any differences are not caused by variations in how the tests were
done,” Kaslow said.
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