mRNA Rift Valley fever vaccine for humans to be developed
The South African biotechnology company Afrigen Biologics is pursuing pioneering new research which aims to develop the first-ever mRNA-based vaccine against Rift Valley fever, a mosquito-borne disease affecting countries across Africa and the Middle East.
Supported by a new $6.2 million/ 116 million South African Rand grant from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), the researchers will work with the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) to progress the new vaccine candidate through preclinical development and into Phase I clinical testing in people in either South Africa or another outbreak-affected country on the continent. If successful, it could offer a critical new and locally produced tool to help combat this potentially deadly illness which poses significant risks to human health as well as livestock.
First identified in Kenya’s Rift Valley in the 1930s, Rift Valley fever usually occurs in people, such as pastoral farmers, following direct contact with infected animals, like sheep, goats and cattle, or bites from infected mosquitoes. While the majority of people infected experience mild disease, around 1-2% of those infected can develop the severe hemorrhagic form, which can cause blindness, convulsions, encephalitis and bleeding, and has mortality rates of around 50%.
As a mosquito-borne, and therefore climate-sensitive disease, there is a risk of Rift Valley fever outbreaks spreading to new areas or increasing in frequency or size as a result of extreme or unusual weather events. The disease has also been expanding in range in recent years with outbreaks in the Middle East and Indian ocean islands, hence the need for new Rift Valley fever vaccines.
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Although vaccines against Rift Valley fever have been registered for animals, no vaccines are currently available or licensed for human use. It is therefore recognised as a priority target disease in need of urgent R&D by both the World Health Organization and Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
The new Afrigen vaccine candidate could help combat this threat through leveraging the cutting-edge mRNA technology developed by the company in its role as the Hub for the WHO and MPP mRNA Technology Transfer Programme which aims to build mRNA vaccine development and production capacity in low- and middle-income countries and closer to where outbreaks happen.