Henipavirus Infections

The UKHSA’s list contains pathogen families that could pose the greatest risk to public health. Credit: Malte Mueller via Getty Images. The UK Health and Security Agency (UKHSA) has released a new watch list of 24 infectious diseases that could pose the greatest future risk to public health, aiming to guide development into diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics. Among the high-priority pathogens are Nipah virus, mpox, and chikungunya, where the UKHSA is keen to see greater investment and scientific research. The agency emphasised that there is no ranking within the list, but each viral family in the list has a rating of high, moderate, or low pandemic and epidemic potential. UKHSA chief scientific officer Isabel Oliver said: “We are using the tool as part of our conversations with the scientific community, to help ensure that investment is focused to where it can have the biggest impact. “We hope this will help to speed up vaccine and diagnostics development where it is most needed, to ensure we are fully prepared in our fight against potentially deadly pathogens.” The watch list is part of the UK Government’s broader “pandemic preparedness” efforts. In March 2024, UKHSA partnered with the Pirbright Institute to develop vaccines against henipavirus – a group of viruses, including Nipah, that can cause severe respiratory and neurological diseases in humans through contact with infected animals. This research, funded by the Medical Research Council, involves UKHSA scientists evaluating Pirbright’s vaccines using a Nipah virus model. There is no approved vaccine for the Nipah virus. In August 2023, UKHSA launched the Vaccine Development Evaluation Centre (VDEC) at its Porton Down site. With more than 200 scientists working on nearly 100 projects, the facility focuses on developing vaccines against emerging threats. Major strides have been made in vaccine development for some diseases on the UKHSA list. Mpox has seen a surge in global cases, leading the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) to declare the 2024 outbreak a public health emergency of Continental Security. Moderna is currently running a Phase I/II clinical trial (NCT05995275) in the UK for its mRNA-1769 mpox vaccine. Chikungunya also remains a priority. Last month, Valneva’s chikungunya vaccine Ixchiq secured approval from the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), allowing the single-dose vaccine to be made available for adults. Just yesterday (24 March), Valneva announced it will supply 40,000 doses of Ixchiq to French overseas territory Réunion as part of efforts to curb the spike in disease cases on the island. In addition, a $41.3m partnership with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness (CEPI) is supporting Ixchiq’s distribution in low and middle-income countries. The UK is not alone in prioritising pandemic preparedness. In March 2021, a coalition of world leaders, including the then-UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, proposed a new treaty on pandemic preparedness and response. This was later taken to the World Health Organization (WHO), where it has been debated by a newly established member state-led intergovernmental negotiation body. The WHO has also emphasised the need to prepare for ‘Disease X’ – the term the agency coined for the next unknown infectious pathogen that could cause a future epidemic or even a pandemic. Disease X is listed alongside Zika, Covid-19, Ebola virus disease and Marburg virus disease as a priority for global investment and R&D efforts.

DEL MAR, Calif., Aug. 6, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Phylex Biosciences has achieved positive results with its new mRNA nanoparticle vaccine against the Nipah virus in an immunogenicity study conducted in collaboration with scientists of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia. The Nipah virus is a pathogen causing encephalitis and acute respiratory distress in humans, with recent outbreaks in Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore, and a fatality rate over 50%. The natural hosts of the virus are large fruit bats present across South Asia. Last month the Indian state of Kerala reported the death of a 14-year-old boy from a Nipah virus infection. To date, no approved vaccine or therapeutic exists against the Nipah virus. Phylex has published a preprint of a research article on immunogenicity of its Nipah mRNA nanoparticle vaccine candidate in mice co-authored with scientists of the CDC (). The vaccine elicited a robust neutralizing antibody response, with neutralizing titers markedly higher than with several other Nipah vaccine designs, and efficient neutralizing even with a single dose. The Phylex mRNA vaccine encodes for a nanoparticle displaying 60 copies of the antigen based upon the head domain of the G protein of the Nipah virus. In virus neutralization assays, neutralization titers of Phylex vaccine-elicited sera against Nipah virus were 3-fold the average titers of 14 individuals in Bangladesh who survived a Nipah virus infection. "We are grateful to our co-authors at the CDC for their contribution in assessing our vaccine against this difficult pathogen," said Pascal Brandys, co-founder and CEO of Phylex Biosciences. "The results confirm the strong advantage of our mRNA vaccine encoding for a highly immunogenic nanoparticle, as compared with a variety of other technologies." "Our vaccine combines the advantages of mRNA for speed of manufacturing and development and a nanoparticle for efficacy after one dose," Brandys continued. "We will aggressively pursue the clinical development of our vaccine candidate to initiate clinical trials with exposed individuals on a compassionate basis and save lives as soon as possible." About Phylex BioSciences Founded at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic by genomics pioneer Pascal Brandys and virologist Jens Herold, Phylex BioSciences is the first company to pursue the development of a mRNA nanoparticle vaccine against the Nipah virus. SOURCE Phylex BioSciences

Scientists from the UKHSA will use a model of Nipah virus disease to evaluate vaccines developed by the Pirbright Institute. Credit: FOTOGRIN via Shutterstock. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has teamed up with the Pirbright Institute to develop vaccines against henipavirus – a group of viruses such as Nipah and Hendra viruses, which can cause severe respiratory and neurological diseases in humans through contact with infected animals. As part of the research, funded by the Medical Research Council, scientists from the UKHSA will use a model of Nipah virus to evaluate vaccines developed by the Pirbright Institute. The World Health Organization has identified Nipah as a priority disease that needs urgent research due to its potential for severe outbreaks. However, it is possible that a novel virus from the whole genus can emerge. Therefore, the aim of the collaboration is to develop a vaccine that provides cross protection against the whole genus of viruses, rather than specific ones. In August 2023, the UKHSA launched the Vaccine Development Evaluation Centre (VDEC), whose key focus is on pathogens for which no vaccines exist or for which vaccines are not regulated in the country. There is no approved vaccine available for the Nipah virus. Located at the Porton Down site of the UKHSA, over 200 scientists will work on almost 100 projects, facilitating the development of new vaccines by testing and assessing them against a range of threats that can lead to a health emergency. The facility will operate throughout the vaccine lifecycle, from product design to the assessment of effectiveness, as new variants emerge. See Also: AstraZeneca snaps up Amolyt for $1.05bn to boost rare disease pipeline Merck to start trials investigating single dosing regimen of HPV vaccine In the announcement accompanying the collaboration, project lead for Pirbright Dalan Bailey said: “Understanding whether vaccines for Nipah or other henipaviruses can provide cross-protection against related viruses is a really important first step in the development of broadly acting vaccines. This is especially important as we try to build more robust pandemic preparedness plans in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, and we are delighted to be working with UKHSA on this project.” In January 2024, Oxford University in the UK initiated a first-in-human clinical trial to evaluate ChAdOx1 NipahB, a Nipah virus vaccine. Enrolling 51 individuals, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) is providing funding for the trial.