First-Ever mRNA Vaccine for Lyme Disease Shows Promise
A lab-stage mRNA vaccine has proven promising effects for stopping the unfold of Lyme disease, the maximum common vector-borne disease in the United States. This mRNA vaccine against Lyme become highly effective in guinea pigs, and researchers wish it will prove to be powerful in humans too, reports Alice Klein for New Scientist.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the number of reported cases of Lyme disease has doubled since 1991 and maintains to grow, fueling the want for a vaccine. Several are in early trials, however, this one is the first to apply mRNA vaccine technology, that's used in the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines, reviews Nicoletta Lanese for Live Science. In fact, the observation was done in collaboration with Drew Weissman, a health practitioner, and scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, who co-invented mRNA vaccines. Humans contract Lyme disease from the bite of a black-legged tick, which includes the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi. For the bacteria to be transmitted, the tick ought to latch onto the skin for 36 to 48 hours, in keeping with the CDC. Most vaccines goal a particular pathogen—like SARS-CoV-2 or influenza—however this one doesn't. Instead of concentrated on B. burgdorferi, the vaccine trains the immune gadget to reply to tick saliva, reviews Ed Cara for Gizmodo. The effects of the trial have been posted this week withinside the magazine Science Translational Medicine.
"All human vaccines directly target pathogens. This would be the first vaccine that does not target the pathogen," co-author Erol Fikrig, an epidemiologist at Yale, tells Gizmodo thru email. "Rather by targeting the tick, you prevent the transmission of a pathogen. In this case the Lyme disease agent." The vaccine will undergo similar animal trials, consisting of trying out in rabbits, earlier than shifting directly to human trials if the effects retain to reveal promise, writes lead author Andaleeb Sajid, a disease study on the National Institutes of Health.
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