In the hit series The Last of Usthe characters identify the zombies among themselves by the mushrooms that sprout from their bodies, and the fungal parasites manipulate humans to infect the communities around them.
In the opening scene of the second episode (spoiler alert, don’t read on if you haven’t made it to that chapter), a mycologist is asked how they can contain the spread of an unusual fungal infection sweeping the city.
With fear, the expert responds: “there is no vaccine.” The only way out, she says, is to “bomb this city.” While it may seem a bit dramatic and this is highly unlikely to happen, it is true that there are no approved vaccines for fungal infections.
There is no medicine. There is no vaccine. #TheLastOfUs pic.twitter.com/jJmxMEpFik
— The Last of Us (@TheLastofUsHBO) January 25, 2023
What is real is that fungal infections cause more than 1.5 million deaths each year and there is no inoculation to prevent them.
But a new vaccine developed by researchers at the University of Georgia in the US could become the first clinically approved immunization to protect against invasive fungal infections.
The scientists conducted tests with rodents and primates. The group that received the vaccine had a better chance of survival compared to the group that received the vaccine. unvaccinated animals.
The experimental vaccine is designed to protect against the three most common fungal pathogens that are responsible for more than 80% of fatal fungal infections:
- Aspergillus
- Candida
- Pneumocystis
“Because it targets three different pathogens, the vaccine has the potential to be groundbreaking when it comes to invasive fungal infections,” he noted in a statement Karen Norris, principal investigator and academic at the School of Veterinary Medicine, who is also a professor at the Center for Vaccines and Immunology of said house of studies.
According to the expert, there are plans underway to develop the vaccine for a Phase I safety trial, that is, in humans. It will be some time before patients potentially benefit from this injection.
“This is an area that has been underdeveloped on the research front for a long time,” Norris added.
The study was published in the PNAS Nexus magazine.
