Sartorisu-Sowmya eBook - 15

DECIPHERING THE IMMUNE RESPONSE TO VIRAL INFECTION

for Vaccine Development are studying Chagas disease, which
is caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. An
estimated eight million people in Latin America are afflicted
with the parasite, and the incidence is increasing. Pollet
explained his approach: "We created a vaccine that combined
six unique mRNAs encoding different parasite proteins and
administered that to mice. We've had exciting results thus far;
however, our in vivo experiments are complex because we aim
to affect the lengthy chronic phase of Chagas disease."
Pollet reported that this same strategy is being adapted to
develop therapeutics for other infectious diseases such as Zika
and rabies. In addition, Pollet pointed out that there are other
lucrative uses of the technology: "Any therapeutic mAb could be
developed into an mRNA-encoded antibody therapy. This would
allow patients to make their own Abs in any of their transfected
cells. Certainly, progress in overcoming challenges related to
mRNA stability, immunogenicity, and delivery can now begin to
drive a large and expanding commercial application of mRNA
therapeutics."
CONSORTIUM FOR STANDARDIZING MABS
Although a number of investigators have produced and
evaluated mAbs against Ebola virus (EBOV), making
comparisons is challenging without standardization of assays
and interpretations among the various groups. To help solve
15 | GENengnews.com

the problem, the Viral Hemorrhagic Fever Immunotherapeutic
Consortium (VIC) assembled with the goal of gathering a broad
pool of antibodies to EBOV and other viruses and analyzing
them using a systematic strategy employing identical assay
conditions. Gary P. Kobinger, PhD, professor and director of the
Infectious Disease Research Centre at the Université Laval is a
member of VIC. He gave the keynote address at the conference
titled, "The Ascent of mAb Therapies against Infectious
Diseases."
Issues confronting mAb therapeutics include identifying
which in vitro tests best predict the in vivo efficacy of mAbs.
VIC recently published a report describing development of
a comprehensive dataset examining more than 170 mAbs
evaluated in each of 30 assays. The various mAbs included
chimeric Abs, human survivor mAbs, and those raised by
immunization. They concluded that no single neutralization
assay alone can always predict protection, and that the mAb
epitope is not the sole determinant of neutralization behavior.
Despite these findings, the group compiled other sets of key
information to serve as a framework for future studies of EBOV
and other human pathogens.
SINGLE HUMAN MAB QUELLS EBOLA
At the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
(NIAID) Vaccine Research Center (VRC), Nancy J. Sullivan,
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