A prime-boost Ebola vaccine regimen that is well into clinical trials shows immune response one year after vaccination, the longest so far for experimental vaccines against the disease using that strategy, researchers reported yesterday (14 March).
The trial involved two vaccine candidates, a priming dose of the adenovirus vectored Ad26.ZEBOV developed by Johnson & Johnson and a booster dose of MVA-BN-Filo from Bavarian Nordic. A team based at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom published its findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
World Health Organization (WHO) advisors have said different types of vaccines will likely be needed to protect people against Ebola. A different vaccine, VSV-EBOV, developed by NewLink Genetics and Merck, has shown good effectiveness in clinical trials in West Africa and has emerged as the frontrunner and offers a tool for outbreak response. Health experts, however, are eyeing other strategies that are likely to afford protection over a longer period for preemptive immunisation of key groups such as healthcare workers.
The Ad26.ZEBOV/MVA-BN-Filo regimen has received funding support from both the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and the European Innovative Medicines Initiative Ebola + Programme, a public-private consortium that includes the University of Oxford and other research groups.
Company officials have applied to the WHO for emergency use evaluation, but so far the agency hasn’t announced a decision.
Phase 1 trial involved 87 adults
The new findings describe the results of a phase 1 trial at Oxford University that enrolled 87 healthy adults ages 18-50 years and began in December 2014. The volunteers completed the 12-month follow-up in March 2016. Participants were randomised to four groups, each with 18 subjects—three of whom received placebo and 15 who got the vaccine.
No serious events were recorded for day 240 through day 360. All of the vaccine recipients maintained Ebola-specific immunoglobulin G response at day 360. The team had previously shown that the immune response to Ebola persisted for eight months.
Researchers said though no correlate of protection has been established yet, Ebola virus glycoprotein-specific antibodies appear to play an important role in immunity and that a preemptive strategy for using the prime-boost regimen for at-risk populations may offer advantages over single-dose vaccines.
They included the caveat that one limitation of their study is that it was conducted in a European population, in whom immune response might differ from populations in sub-Saharan Africa.
Written by Lisa Schnirring. This story was sourced from the Centre for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) website.
