The open-access journal, PLoS NTDs, celebrated its fifth anniversary. To commemorate this great achievement, the journal compiled editorials and research papers published over the last five years to create a collection, called “The Geopolitics of NTDs.”
The collection focuses on the geographic distribution of NTDs by region to highlight the key differences as well as similarities between the diseases in different areas around the world.
October 11, 2012 | Financial Times
The Financial Times special report “Combating Neglected Diseases” contains in-depth stories and interviews featuring several of Sabin’s key programs, including Sabin Vaccine Development, the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases and the Dengue Vaccine Initiative.
Read the full report here.
Leishmaniasis includes two major diseases, cutaneous leishmaniasis and visceral leishmaniasis, caused by more than 20 different leishmanial species. Cutaneous leishmaniasis, the most common form of the disease, causes skin ulcers, and is the form upon with the Sabin PDP focuses. Visceral leishmaniasis is more rare, but causes a severe systemic disease that is usually fatal without treatment. Leishmaniasis is transmitted by the bite of a sand fly. Many leishmanial species infect animals as well as humans.
Today Chagas disease is one of the world’s most important neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and a leading cause of poverty in Latin America. An estimated 10 million people are infected worldwide with more than 99% of the cases occurring in Latin America, especially in the poorest countries in the region.
The Sabin PDP is currently engaged in collaboration for early research and development for a bivalent therapeutic vaccine for the treatment of chronic Chagas disease (American trypanosomiasis). It would be the first therapeutic vaccine for this disease. The vaccine is comprised of two Trypanosoma cruzi recombinant proteins formulated on alum. One of the antigens is a unique T. cruzi 24 kDa antigen (Tc24) and the other is a unique T. cruzi surface transialidase (TSA-1).
The Schistosomiasis Vaccine Initiative was launched in 2008 through funding from Mr. Morton Hyman and the Blavatnik Family Foundation. In collaboration with researchers at James Cook University and The George Washington University, a promising antigen, Sm-TSP-2, was selected for development.
Schistosomiasis is a parasite carried by snails and transmitted through contact with contaminated fresh water sources such as lakes, ponds, rivers and dams. Schistosomiasis infection is readily transmissible for those who come in frequent contact with contaminated water – particularly children who wade or play in water and women conducting domestic chores.
In collaboration with researchers at the James Cook University and The George Washington University, a promising new antigen, Sm-TSP-2 (Schistosoma mansoni Tetraspanin-2), was selected for development as a schistosomiasis vaccine. Then at Texas Children's Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine, Sabin and its partners developed the process for manufacture of the vaccine under cGMP, and was followed by technology transfer to Sabin's manufacturing partner, Aeras.