Staff Scientists Frédéric Chevalier, PhD, and Winka Le Clec’h, PhD, check on snails that are a vector for the parasites that cause schistosomiasis.
SPOTLIGHT
BIOMED BRIEFS SECRETS OF A CRITICAL SCHISTOSOMIASIS DRUG UNLOCKED For decades, no one really knew how the drug praziquantel treated schistosomiasis, a parasitic worm infection afflicting more than 200 million people worldwide. Texas Biomed Professor Tim Anderson, PhD, and his team, and researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin, determined how the drug works on the molecular level to kill the tiny flatworms. The teams worked independently using different methods, and both came to the same conclusion, indicating the results are very robust. They found the drug binds to a channel in the worms’ cell membranes, leading to a flood of calcium ions entering the cells, causing paralysis and death. However, the drug is only about 70% effective. The insights lay the groundwork for diagnostic tests to identify drug-resistant parasites and for developing new treatments. The five year project was published in Science Translational Medicine.
ZIKA VACCINE SHOWS PROMISING RESULTS IN PRECLINICAL STUDIES Texas Biomed and its Southwest National Primate Research Center (SNPRC) played a critical role in testing how well a vaccine candidate prevented Zika virus from passing from mother to fetus in animal models. Zika causes miscarriages and severe developmental defects in human newborns, and is a World Health Organization public health emergency of international concern. The vaccine, developed at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, had been shown to elicit an immune response in adults, but testing on pregnant women is restricted for ethical and safety concerns. Collaborators at Trudeau Institute evaluated the vaccine in mice, while Texas Biomed researchers, led by Professor Jean Patterson, PhD, evaluated it in marmosets. The vaccine was 80% effective at preventing fetal malformations in mice and 90% effective at blocking the virus in marmoset offspring. The study was published in npj Vaccines. 8
