Editorial Science, Aug 8 (EFE).- The recent appearance of a possible causal relationship between the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and multiple sclerosis has generated great interest in the development of a vaccine against EBV. Now, a new candidate has shown “promising” in mice, according to data from a preliminary study.
Its description is published in the journal Nature Communications, in an article signed by, among others, researchers at the Berghofer Institute for Medical Research in Brisbane, Australia.
Currently, no vaccine has been approved for protection against this widespread virus, one of the most common in humans, “so there is a pressing global need for new advances,” the journal notes.
EBV is a virus of the herpes family that can be transmitted through saliva and is known to infect at least 95% of the world’s adult population.
Primary infection can cause glandular fever (mononucleosis) and, unlike other viruses, EBV is not eliminated by the immune system after primary infection – it becomes latent – and if reactivated it can be transmitted again.
Only occasionally can EBV infection also be a risk factor for the development of more serious diseases, such as some cancers of the throat and nose, and multiple sclerosis.
The hypothesis of this association was raised some time ago and there are more and more studies pointing in this direction and suggesting that infection by the virus may precede sclerosis.
In fact, the possibility that infection with the Epstein-Barr virus, which causes what is known as the “kissing disease”, has a role in the development of multiple sclerosis was one of the great advances of 2022 cited by Science.
The conclusion was from a team from Harvard University, in the United States, which followed more than ten million military recruits for 20 years; the team found that the risk of multiple sclerosis increased 32-fold after EBV infection.
Previous EBV vaccine candidates have not performed well when tested in humans and animal models, and currently no vaccine has been shown to be effective or approved, Nature Communications recalls; the new candidate “has shown promise in mice.”
Rajiv Khanna and his team designed a lymph node-targeted vaccine and tested its efficacy in mouse models.
They verified that the administration of this gave rise to the production of potent EBV-specific antibodies and T cells, which were maintained for at least seven months after vaccination in the animal model.
The recent emergence of a possible causal relationship between the Epstein-Barr virus and multiple sclerosis has generated great interest in the development of an effective EBV vaccine, the authors recall in their study. “The way this vaccine has been designed is to actually prevent multiple sclerosis,” Khanna summarizes in a video.
In addition, the scientists demonstrated the vaccine’s ability to induce immunity to control the spread of EBV-associated tumors and tumor growth in a mouse model of lymphoma.
Further work is needed to determine the efficacy of the vaccine in the context of primary infection and to achieve transfer of the results obtained to humans and the long-term stability of vaccine-induced immunity.
As for future human clinical trials, Khanna explains that they already have an industrial partner that is co-funding the program and his team is talking to other potential partners. EFE
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2023-08-08 16:03:59
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