New Experimental Vaccine Provides Protection Against Hospital Infections: Promising Results in Mice

Health Care Associated Infections (HAIs) are invasions of pathogenic microorganisms that affect patients in a hospital or other health care center (Europa Press)

When a person is hospitalized for an illness or accident, they also face the risk of acquiring healthcare-associated infections. One way to reduce this risk is for institutions to have infection prevention programs.

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Scientists in the United States are developing a vaccine or stimulator so that patients can be protected against superbacteria that may affect them during hospitalizations.

This is an experimental vaccine. Preliminary results were published in a published study by scientists in the journal Science Translational Medicine. They belong to the University of Southern California and have already patented it.

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Researchers designed the formula to prevent serious infections caused by pathogens that are resistant to drugs.

In the published study, they showed that a single dose, which was administered in mouse models, put immune cells in “Incredible Hulk” mode, according to the researchers. This means it provides rapid protection against eight different species of bacteria and fungi.

Scientists in the United States develop a product that could give patients protection against superbugs when they enter hospitals (Getty)

The development works as an “early warning system. “It’s like Homeland Security issued a terrorist alert,” said Brad Spellberg, lead author and medical director of the university-affiliated Los Angeles General Medical Center.

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It consists of a formulation of three compounds that provide up to 28 days of protection against the hospital bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa, among others, and appears to work by strengthening the innate immune system, the body’s generalized first-line response to invading pathogens.

Two of the three compounds are already used in vaccines approved by the drug regulatory authority, the FDA. The third component is a small portion of the surface of a common fungus on human skin.

The experimental vaccine stimulates the preexisting supply of pathogen-inhibiting immune cells called macrophages, which engulf and digest bacteria, fungi and other harmful agents. These activated cells, present in all tissues, quickly neutralize incoming invaders, which could otherwise multiply rapidly and overwhelm the body’s defenses.

The innovation is already patented. In a study it was shown that it stimulates the pre-existing supply of pathogen-inhibiting immune cells called macrophages, which digest bacteria, viruses and fungi that affect patients / National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)

“This is very different from developing new antibiotics,” explained Jun Yan, a doctoral student at the Keck School of Medicine at Southern California University and first author of the study. “It’s about using our own immune system to fight different superbugs, which is a different approach than everyone else’s,” he said.

“It’s a very interesting approach,” said Jay Kolls, a pulmonologist and vaccine researcher at Tulane University in the United States, who was not involved in the study. “It is one of the first works I have seen in which attempts are made to attack infections, using multiple components that activate the innate immune system,” he added.

But he noted that the new product uses nonspecific ingredients to provide short-term protection against various bacteria and fungi. Therefore, instead of calling it a “vaccine”, he believes that it would be better to consider it as an “immune stimulant” or “enhancer.”

Each year, healthcare-acquired infections kill more than 90,000 people in the United States and cost healthcare costs between $28 billion and $45 billion. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in 31 hospitalized patients suffers from at least one such infection.

In Latin America, when a hospitalized patient acquires an infection, the mortality rate is 30%. When they have two infections, it rises to 40%/File

“In Latin America, the average mortality rate in hospitals only reaches 17% of hospitalized patients if they do not acquire a hospital infection,” according to what Argentine doctor Víctor Rosenthal, founder and president of the International Scientific Control Community, had told Infobae. of Nosocomial Infections.

On the other hand, when a hospitalized patient acquires an infection, the mortality rate is 30%. When they have two infections, it rises to 40%. If the patient acquires three infections, mortality can reach 63%.

To develop the vaccine, Spellberg and collaborators created the company ExBaq LLC, and have already begun talking to potential pharmaceutical partners who would be interested in further developing the vaccine for human clinical trials. The next step is to obtain guidance from the FDA on the requirements for completing preclinical studies and submitting an investigational product application in 2024.

The first trial of its kind would be conducted in healthy volunteers to find the right dose of vaccine that is safe and triggers the same type of immune response in people as that seen in mice.

2023-10-12 15:43:50
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