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 | University receives $5.6 million NIH grant for vaccine research | |
| By Judy Purdy | ||
Chagas disease is the leading cause of death among young adults in Latin American regions where the parasite is endemic. Many scientists believe Chagas disease is also the world’s most common cause of congestive heart failure and sudden death. Because some infected people are asymptomatic, the disease may go undetected and undiagnosed for years. In the United States for example, approximately 50,000 people are infected and unknowingly may expose others through blood and tissue donation, Tarleton says. Tarleton and his collaborators aim to design therapeutic vaccines that not only enhance people’simmune responses to T. cruzi but also identify which people are most likely to benefit from vaccination. Tarleton, a founder and member of the Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases, directs the vaccine project, which includes researchers at UGA, Cornell University, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Argentina’s National Council of Scientific and Technical Investigations, as well as cardiologists at the Eva Perón Hospital, Buenos Aires. Ron Orlando, a UGA analytical chemist at the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, leads the project’s mass spectrometry component, which is aimed at selecting gene targets for a vaccine. Miriam Postan, a researcher with Argentina’s National Council of Scientific and Technical Investigations, leads the analysis of human immune responses that have potential for vaccine development. T. cruzi is transmitted to people and their pets, especially dogs, by the bite of a parasite-infected reduviid bug, or kissing bug. It is estimated that up to 20 million people in Latin America are infected by the parasite and an additional one million new cases arise each year. No vaccine currently exists for counteracting the parasite, which may cause lethal, chronic or asymptomatic infections in host organisms. Chemotherapy treatments are used sparingly because of their toxic side effects. In previous studies, the researchers have identified, manufactured and tested vaccines based on T. cruzi genes, providing protection from lethal infections and chronic Chagas disease in animal models. Now they are evaluating and prioritizing all possible target T. cruzi genes—approximately 6,000 to 7,000 genes—that may yield therapeutic vaccines. To date, they have cloned approximately 1,000 genes and have begun evaluating their therapeutic action. During the next five years they plan to identify, clone and test the remaining genes as vaccine therapies for people and pets and then develop the best gene combinations and delivery mechanisms. The researchers also plan to identify which infected patients are most likely to benefit from such therapeutic vaccines and will make their T. cruzi gene databank available to other researchers. | ||
