Journal article
Pre-clinical evaluation of a whole-parasite vaccine to control human babesiosis
HA Al-Nazal, E Cooper, MF Ho, S Eskandari, V Majam, AK Giddam, WM Hussein, MT Islam, M Skwarczynski, I Toth, S Kumar, A Zaid, M Batzloff, DI Stanisic, MF Good
Cell Host and Microbe | Published : 2021
Abstract
Babesia spp. are tick-transmitted intra-erythrocytic protozoan parasites that infect humans and animals, causing a flu-like illness and hemolytic anemia. There is currently no human vaccine available. People most at risk of severe disease are the elderly, immunosuppressed, and asplenic individuals. B. microti and B. divergens are the predominant species affecting humans. Here, we present a whole-parasite Babesia vaccine. To establish proof-of-principle, we employed chemically attenuated B. microti parasitized red blood cells from infected mice. To aid clinical translation, we produced liposomes containing killed parasite material. Vaccination significantly reduces peak parasitemia following ..
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Awarded by U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Funding Acknowledgements
We thank Dr Jelena Vider for assistance with the flow cytometry analyses. This work was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia) Program grant APP1132975. We thank Dr. Cheryl Lobo (New York Blood Center) for providing the B. divergens parasite line. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors and do not represent the official position of the FDA.