Current Status of HIV-1 Vaccines

HIV-1 infection and its progression to AIDS remains a significant global health challenge, particularly for low-income countries. Developing a vaccine to prevent HIV-1 infections has proven to be immensely challenging with complex biological acquisition and infection, unforeseen clinical trial disappointments, and funding issues. This paper discusses important landmarks of progress in HIV-1 vaccine development, various vaccine strategies, and clinical trials.

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Current status of therapeutic approaches and vaccines for SARS-CoV-2

Future Microbiology ◽

10.2217/fmb-2020-0147 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Braira Wahid ◽

Anam Amir ◽

Ayesha Ameen ◽

Muhammad Idrees

Keyword(s):

Clinical Trial ◽

Clinical Trials ◽

Review Article ◽

Experimental Designs ◽

Current Status ◽

Therapeutic Approaches ◽

Efficacious Treatment ◽

Rapid Pace ◽

Global Health Challenge

SARS-CoV-2, declared a pandemic in March 2020, is the current global health challenge. The global bioburden of this virus is increasing at a rapid pace. Many antiviral drugs and vaccines have been registered for clinical trials because of their inhibitory activity observed in vitro. Currently, five types of vaccines have successfully passed Phase IV clinical trial and are being administered in populations worldwide. A plethora of experimental designs have been proposed worldwide in order to find a safe and efficacious treatment option. Therefore, it is necessary to provide baseline data and information to clinicians and researchers so that they can review the current status of therapeutics and efficacy of already developed vaccines. This review article summarizes all therapeutic options that may help to combat SARS-CoV-2.

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Plant-Based COVID-19 Vaccines: Current Status, Design, and Development Strategies of Candidate Vaccines

Vaccines ◽

10.3390/vaccines9090992 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (9) ◽

pp. 992

Author(s):

Puna Maya Maharjan ◽

Sunghwa Choe

Keyword(s):

Clinical Trial ◽

Clinical Trials ◽

Vaccine Development ◽

Production Systems ◽

Transmission Rate ◽

Neutralizing Antibody ◽

Current Status ◽

Economic Losses ◽

Phase 2 Clinical Trial ◽

Clinical Trial Results

The prevalence of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in its second year has led to massive global human and economic losses. The high transmission rate and the emergence of diverse SARS-CoV-2 variants demand rapid and effective approaches to preventing the spread, diagnosing on time, and treating affected people. Several COVID-19 vaccines are being developed using different production systems, including plants, which promises the production of cheap, safe, stable, and effective vaccines. The potential of a plant-based system for rapid production at a commercial scale and for a quick response to an infectious disease outbreak has been demonstrated by the marketing of carrot-cell-produced taliglucerase alfa (Elelyso) for Gaucher disease and tobacco-produced monoclonal antibodies (ZMapp) for the 2014 Ebola outbreak. Currently, two plant-based COVID-19 vaccine candidates, coronavirus virus-like particle (CoVLP) and Kentucky Bioprocessing (KBP)-201, are in clinical trials, and many more are in the preclinical stage. Interim phase 2 clinical trial results have revealed the high safety and efficacy of the CoVLP vaccine, with 10 times more neutralizing antibody responses compared to those present in a convalescent patient’s plasma. The clinical trial of the CoVLP vaccine could be concluded by the end of 2021, and the vaccine could be available for public immunization thereafter. This review encapsulates the efforts made in plant-based COVID-19 vaccine development, the strategies and technologies implemented, and the progress accomplished in clinical trials and preclinical studies so far.

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Delivering vaccines to the people who need them most

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rstb.2014.0150 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 370 (1671) ◽

pp. 20140150 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Michèle Anne Barocchi ◽

Rino Rappuoli

Keyword(s):

Global Health ◽

Private Sector ◽

Low Income ◽

Vaccine Development ◽

Virus Disease ◽

Economic Incentives ◽

Low Income Countries ◽

Western World ◽

Global Health Community ◽

Health Community

Thanks to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), the Vaccine Fund and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the global health community has made enormous progress in providing already existing vaccines to developing countries. However, there still exists a gap to develop vaccines for which there is no market in the Western world, owing to low economic incentives for the private sector to justify the investments necessary for vaccine development. In many cases, industry has the technologies, but lacks the impetus to direct resources to develop these vaccine products. The present emergency with the Ebola vaccine provides us an excellent example where a vaccine was feasible several years ago, but the global health community waited for a humanitarian disaster to direct efforts and resources to develop this vaccine. In the beginning of 2015, the first large-scale trials of two experimental vaccines against Ebola virus disease have begun in West Africa. During the past few years, several institutions have dedicated efforts to the development of vaccines against diseases present only in low-income countries. These include the International Vaccine Institute, the Novartis Vaccines Institute for Global Health, the Hilleman Institute, the Sabin Vaccine Institute and the Infectious Disease Research Institute. Nevertheless, solving this problem requires a more significant global effort than that currently invested. These efforts include a clear policy, global coordination of funds dedicated to the development of neglected disease and an agreement on regulatory strategies and incentives for the private sector.

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Editorial for the Special Issue: “Honey Bee Products as an Alternative or Complement to Classical Antibiotics”

Antibiotics ◽

10.3390/antibiotics10030234 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (3) ◽

pp. 234

Author(s):

Piotr Szweda

Keyword(s):

Global Health ◽

World Health Organization ◽

Honey Bee ◽

World Health ◽

Special Issue ◽

Health Challenge ◽

Health Organization ◽

Global Health Challenge

Based on World Health Organization reports, the resistance of bacteria to well-known antibiotics is becoming a major global health challenge [...]

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State of the art in rapid paper tests for COVID-19 and coronaviruses

Journal of Materials Chemistry B ◽

10.1039/d1tb00674f ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Delyan Hristov ◽

Jose Gomez-Marquez ◽

Djibril Wade ◽

Kimberly Hamad-Schifferli

Keyword(s):

Global Health ◽

State Of The Art ◽

Diagnostic Testing ◽

Diagnostic Assays ◽

Health Challenge ◽

Global Health Challenge

The COVID-19 pandemic has let to an unprecedented global health challenge, creating sudden, massive demands for diagnostic testing, treatment, therapies, and vaccines. In particular, the development of diagnostic assays for...

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Cost-effectiveness analysis of tenofovir/emtricitabine and abacavir/lamivudine in combination with efavirenz or atazanavir/ritonavir for treatment-naïve adults with HIV-1 infection in the UK, based on the AIDS Clinical Trials Group 5202 clinical trial

HIV Medicine ◽

10.1111/hiv.12349 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 17 (7) ◽

pp. 505-515 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

E Wilkins ◽

M Fisher ◽

AJ Brogan ◽

SE Talbird ◽

EM La

Keyword(s):

Clinical Trial ◽

Clinical Trials ◽

Cost Effectiveness ◽

Cost Effectiveness Analysis ◽

Effectiveness Analysis ◽

Treatment Naïve ◽

Aids Clinical Trials ◽

The Uk ◽

Hiv 1

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A human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) clade A vaccine in clinical trials: stimulation of HIV-specific T-cell responses by DNA and recombinant modified vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA) vaccines in humans

Journal of General Virology ◽

10.1099/vir.0.19701-0 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 85 (4) ◽

pp. 911-919 ◽

Cited By ~ 157

Author(s):

Matilu Mwau ◽

Inese Cebere ◽

Julian Sutton ◽

Priscilla Chikoti ◽

Nicola Winstone ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Human Immunodeficiency Virus ◽

Clinical Trials ◽

Vaccinia Virus ◽

Mononuclear Cells ◽

Vaccine Development ◽

Cell Mediated Immunity ◽

Phase I Clinical Trials ◽

Modified Vaccinia Virus Ankara ◽

Immunodeficiency Virus ◽

Hiv 1

The immunogenicities of candidate DNA- and modified vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA)-vectored human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) vaccines were evaluated on their own and in a prime–boost regimen in phase I clinical trials in healthy uninfected individuals in the United Kingdom. Given the current lack of approaches capable of inducing broad HIV-neutralizing antibodies, the pTHr.HIVA DNA and MVA.HIVA vaccines focus solely on the induction of cell-mediated immunity. The vaccines expressed a common immunogen, HIVA, which consists of consensus HIV-1 clade A Gag p24/p17 proteins fused to a string of clade A-derived epitopes recognized by cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs). Volunteers' fresh peripheral blood mononuclear cells were tested for HIV-specific responses in a validated gamma interferon enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) assay using four overlapping peptide pools across the Gag domain and three pools of known CTL epitopes present in all of the HIVA protein. Both the DNA and the MVA vaccines alone and in a DNA prime–MVA boost combination were safe and induced HIV-specific responses in 14 out of 18, seven out of eight and eight out of nine volunteers, respectively. These results are very encouraging and justify further vaccine development.

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Male Contraceptives: Present and Future Approaches

Clinical Research Gynecology and Obstetrics ◽

10.31829/2640-6284/crgo-1(1)-101 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 1-12

Keyword(s):

Clinical Trials ◽

Global Health ◽

Sexually Transmitted Diseases ◽

Current Status ◽

Sexually Transmitted ◽

Full Control ◽

Surgical Methods ◽

Younger Men ◽

Global Health Issue ◽

Unwanted Pregnancies

There is general agreement that men, like women, must take full control of their fertility, an important global health issue. However, the contraceptives for preventing pregnancy that primarily involve male physiology have not changed in the last century. These options are still limited to the non-surgical methods of the use of a condom, abstinence, and a timely withdrawal (coitus interrupts) or the surgical approach of vas occlusion (vasectomy) that prevents sperm from being released during ejaculation. When not defective and used correctly, condoms are effective in preventing unwanted pregnancies as well as providing protection against sexually transmitted diseases. However, condoms, abstinence and timely withdrawal approaches have relatively higher typical-use failure rates whereas vasectomy is largely irreversible and not suitable for younger men. Thus, providing a safe, effective, reversible and affordable contraceptive for men has remained an elusive goal. In this article, we intend to discuss many details of currently available contraceptives for men, the current status of the research and development of non-surgical male contraceptives and also to describe experimental details of three intra-vas approaches that are undergoing advanced clinical trials and may soon be available for men to regulate their fertility. Finally, we will introduce the “sperm switch” approach. This is the latest invention that will allow men to decide if and when to ejaculate spermatozoa during coitus. The availability of several safe, effective, reversible and affordable contraceptives will allow men to take full control of their fertility.

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