Wednesday, January 15, 2025
1/15/2025
Streptococcus pyogenes which is also known as group A streptococcus (GAS) is a Gram positive bacterial pathogen that is responsible for numerous diseases including relatively benign pharyngitis and skin infections to serious invasive diseases including necrotizing fasciitis and the post-infectious sequelae rheumatic fever, rheumatic heart disease and glomerulonephritis. Presently, there is no strategy for primary prevention that is proven to work in less-developed countries, so a vaccine is clearly needed. Some vaccine strategies under development may not be effective in less developed countries. Our long-term goal is the development of broad-spectrum global vaccine that prevents GAS infection and its associated diseases, including rheumatic fever. Our GAS vaccine candidate is based on a peptide antigen from the conserved region of the M-protein We have four potential vaccine constructs that use this antigen, each of which has shown good immunogenicity, safety and protection in pre-clinical studies. There are three overall objectives for the work in the current proposal: (1) Progression of the most advanced of our construct to clinical trials. At the conclusion of this work, we expect to have completed: (a) An initial phase I trial in adult volunteers in Australia. (b) A larger multicentre phase I trial in adult volunteers in Australia and adult volunteers in a developing country. (e) A small phase I trial in child volunteers in a developing country. (2) Further development of the conserved region peptide as an intranasal vaccine. (3) Field studies in a developing country to establish correlates of protection that may be used in phase II and III clinical trials of the conserved region peptide, and to establish a field site for these later-phase trials.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).