New technology targets Zika, Lassa fever and Ebola through single-dose vaccines

Researchers are espousing the benefits of an effort in delivering new single-dose vaccines that fully protect against infectious diseases such as Zika, Lassa fever, and Ebola.

GeoVax scientists said they have developed a flexible “Plug and Play” technology platform recently presented at ASM Microbe, the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology, in Atlanta, Georgia.

Investigators said vaccines produced in the platform are safe, highly immunogenic and effective against a wide range of indications. They are also suitable for repeated use, stable at refrigerator temperatures or lyophilized for non-cold chain needle-free application while also being amenable to rapid and affordable scale-up for use in both epidemic response and routine vaccination.

“Unlike other vaccine technologies currently available, which sacrifice confidence in success for speed or vice-versa, the GeoVax technology offers a true Plug and Play platform approach that is well suited for use against a wide range of biological threats and amenable to rapid, large-scale production,” Rahul Basu, the study’s lead author and a scientist at GeoVax, said.

Researchers said the work involved researchers testing three independent vaccines against three different families of viruses, with each vaccine demonstrating full protection after a single dose, using various lethal challenge models.

“To demonstrate a broad utility of the platform, we developed prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines for other infectious diseases as well as cancer,” Basu said.