New vaccine trial targets 2000-year-old virus
The researchers behind the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine have started a new trial to treat a much older disease: the plague.
In the phase-one trial, scientists at the University of Oxford will be testing a new vaccine for the ancient virus on at least 40 healthy volunteers aged between 18 and 55.
The new vaccine, which uses the same technology as the AstraZeneca jab, is being trialled to check how well the body recognises and learns how to fight the plague after vaccination.
Though the virus hasn’t been seen in most of the world since the Black Death swept through Europe in the 14th century, there are still cases in some rural areas of Africa, Asia and America.
Between 2010 and 2015, 3,248 cases of the plague were reported globally, including 584 deaths.
Just two years later, an epidemic in Madagascar saw 2,119 suspected cases and 171 deaths over several months.
With many of the regions at risk of outbreaks being in remote locations, a vaccine could be a new way to protect these communities.
Larissa, 26, studies genetics at the University of Oxford and is one of the participants who hopes she can help save lives by getting the jab.
Image: Oxford University
“I’m lucky enough to live in a time where vaccines are being developed,” Larissa said.
“And so, when I saw that there was a study aiming at developing a vaccine against a disease that’s been around for 2000 years and has killed millions and millions of people, I didn’t hesitate, I just wanted to do my bit.”
When asked if she was worried about side effects, Larissa said she wasn’t “too concerned”.
“The vaccine that’s being assessed today is using the same platform as the Covid vaccine, which has literally been administered to millions of people around the world.”
Like the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine, the plague vaccine uses a weakened version of adenovirus - a common-cold virus from chimpanzees - that has been genetically altered so people do not get infected.
The vaccine does not contain plague bacterium, meaning recipients of the jab cannot contract the plague.
Instead, the adenovirus has additional genes that make proteins from Yersinia pestis, the plague bacterium.
With these added genes, the vaccine should be able to teach the immune systems of recipients how to fend off a real infection of the plague if it needs to.
This technique could also be used against other diseases, according to the researchers.
“We’ve already done clinical trials using similar technology against a bacterium, meningitis B, and a virus, Zika,” Dr Maheshi Ramasamy, the senior clinical researcher of the Oxford Vaccine Group, said.
“But we’re also looking to develop vaccines against new and emerging diseases such as Lassa fever or the Marburg virus.”
The plague vaccine trial is expected to run for at least a year.