| |
Oxford positive comments on Cuban vaccinology approaches and results
José A. Acosta, Rolando Pajón, Ernesto L. Mola, Ricardo S. Rodríguez, Boris E. Acevedo, Luis H. Martinez.
Havana , February 20. An extensive and significantly deep review on serogroup B meningococcal vaccines has been published by experts from the University of Oxford in Expert Opin. Biol. Ther. 2005, 5 (12): 1611-1625. They reviewed the advances towards an improved serogroup B Neisseria meningitidis vaccine at the most important research institutions and pharmaceutical companies. According to the authors: "vaccine prevention of serogroup B N. meningitidis disease represents a complex scientific challenge". They argue that a functional and protective humoral immune response against meningococcus was reported by Cuban scientists in Vaccine 2005, 23 (7): 932-939. A detailed explanation on the novel Cuban approach was included in the review as a significant step to identify and characterise new protective meningococcal candidate antigens.
The Cuban approach is known as expression library immunisation (ELI). The ELI technique involved immunising mice with DNA or cDNA obtained from expression library of whole genomic from the pathogen in genetic immunisation vectors. Thereafter, protective capacity of sera from the immunised mice against N. meningitidis bacteraemia in infant rats was evaluated. Cuban scientists working at the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotec hnology (CIGB) and Finlay Institute (FI), Havana , Cuba , concluded: "Our study demonstrates, for the first time, that genomic immunization offers a novel approach for screening possible vaccine candidates against N. meningitidis ". Encouraging results of the Cuban vaccine VA-MENGOC-BC are also highlighted by the British authors.
The report also mentioned the long efficacy limited to clonal bacterial response using the VAMENGOC-BC (Finlay Institute), the only available vaccine with register in more than 19 countries for protecting against this bacterium. OMV derived from this vaccine can be used as an attractive carrier platform for attaching selected antigens from other strains to improve cross protection and immunogenicity of these candidates. Safety studies of this vaccine make the OMV strategy a promising alternative, in combination with the ELI strategy, for generating novel vaccine candidates to be used in several applications. Additionally, through the CIGB´s developed SCAPE and Bioinformatics platforms in the identification of previously undiscovered protective antigens, seven new vaccine candidates are in different stages of pre-clinical validation with extremely promising results in inducing protection against different heterologous meningococcal strains. In line with previous results this project has been opened for negotiation at the CIGB and included within the CIGB´s negotiation portfolio, along with other 18 biomedical projects, and published in the web site (http://gndp.cigb.edu.cu) to facilitate the access to the medical community, companies and research institutions to the most up to date R&D results at the CIGB. The institution is looking for: i-) Partnership for clinical trials, and ii-) Out-licensing agreement for specific territories.
About the SCAPE
The CIGB owns an exclusive proteome platform known as SCAPE for the quantitative isolation of peptides representatives of each protein present in a mixture and further characterization by LC-MS. This novel method allows a very rapid analysis requiring sample amounts similar to those commonly used for 2D-PAGE, while avoiding the inconveniences with basic and hydrophobic proteins.
About the CIGB
The CIGB, a vanguard institution in the Life Sciences in Cuba , is a large research-production complex, endowed with the state of the art equipment, production capacities and personnel devoted to the development of new biotechnology products in all stages, from the cloning and expression using recombinant DNA technology to industrial production. The CIGB has extensive experience in the recombinant DNA technology dated back to 1980, with more than 1300 employees, owning the most modern and efficient technology, carefully studied-beforehand facilities so as to ease the quiet and continuous workflow with a total area of more than 70 000 m 2 . The CIGB is looking for corporate partnership for joint development of R&D projects.
For information: http://gndp.cigb.edu.cu or http://www.cigb.edu.cu
Contact: ernesto.lopez@cigb.edu.cu
Phone: (53-7) 2712397.
|
|
