Nipah Virus Vaccine

Nipah Virus Vaccines 2024

As of January 2024, no licensed vaccine or treatment for the Nipah virus (NiV) has been authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the European Medicines Agency (EMA), but clinical trials are ongoing, says the World Health Organization (WHO). Among Nipah vaccine candidates are live-attenuated and replication-defective recombinant vaccine platforms based on poxviruses, VSV, adenovirus, measles, rabies, and virus-like particles and subunit vaccines. In June 2023, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) invested up to U.S. $100 million in four Nipah vaccine candidates: Auro Vaccines and PATH, Public Health Vaccines, the University of Tokyo, and the University of Oxford.

Nipah Virus Vaccine Candidates

As of January 11, 2024, the ChAdOx1 NipahB vaccine is being developed by researchers at the University of Pandemic Sciences Institute. Fifty-one people aged 18 to 55 will participate in the first-in-human phase 1 clinical trial, which is being led by the Oxford Vaccine Group within the Department for Paediatrics (Miss Ella Morey, [email protected]) and funded by the CEPI. The study (ISRCTN87634044) will run over the next 18 months, with further trials expected to follow in a Nipah-affected country. NPJ reported in 2022 that ChAdOx1 NiV vaccination protects against lethal Nipah Bangladesh virus infection in African green monkeys. Vaccinated animals showed no signs of disease, and we could not detect infectious viruses in tissues and all but one swab. No limited antibodies against fusion protein or nucleoprotein antigen could be seen 42 days post-challenge, suggesting that vaccination induced a robust protective immune response preventing extensive virus replication. In 2019, a study reported a single-dose ChAdOx1-vectored vaccine provides complete protection against Nipah Bangladesh and Malaysia in Syrian golden hamsters.

mRNA-1215 Nipah virus vaccine candidate is being produced by Moderna Inc. The phase 1 clinical trial was last updated on September 13, 2023.

Public Health Vaccines LLC sponsors PHV02, a live, attenuated, recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus vector vaccine candidate expressing the Nipah virus (Bangladesh strain) and the Ebola virus glycoprotein. The VSV-NiVG vaccine offers broad protection against NiV disease. It affords protection after a single injection; it protects from homologous and heterologous challenges using the licensed VSV-EBOV vector as a backbone. The phase 1 clinical trial was last updated on March 14, 2023.

The International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research in Bangladesh also studies Nipah survivors better to understand the body's response to the virus and support vaccine development. Up to $980,000 will be provided by CEPI to support the research.

Phylex BioSciences's second-generation nanoparticle mRNA vaccine technology directly applies to developing a Nipah virus vaccine. The mRNA vaccine candidate encodes for a nanoparticle displaying 60 copies of antigen-based upon the head domain of the G protein of the Nipah virus. The anticipated advantages of the nanoparticle vaccine are superior immune response, long-term protection from cell-mediated immunity, and protection against virus dissemination in the brain.

Nipah Virus Vaccine for Pigs

The United Kingdom's Vaccine Network awarded Pirbright researchers £389,089 in 2022 to develop a Nipah virus vaccine that could protect pigs and prevent human disease. Innovate U.K. is delivering this funding. In pigs, it has been shown that induction of humoral and cellular immunity is essential for protection after vaccination.

Nipah Outbreaks

Nipah is a zoonotic disease that is spread between animals and people by fruit bats, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). Nipah and henipaviral diseases are considered priority pathogens by the World Health Organization (WHO) because of their potential to cause public health emergencies. The first known Nipah outbreak occurred in 1998 in Malaysia and Singapore. An estimated 40% to 75% of people infected with Nipah virus die. Since 1999, Nipah outbreaks have occurred annually in Asia, including Bangladesh and India. According to the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control, and Research data, Bangladesh has reported ten fatal cases in 2023.

Nipah Virus News

January 28, 2024 - BD News reported the first fatality in 2024 from the Nipah virus in Manikganj, Bangladesh. A second death was reported after consuming raw date juice.

November 4, 2023 - Study: Both chimpanzee adenovirus-vectored and DNA vaccines induced long-term immunity against Nipah virus infection. Both chimpanzee adenovirus-vectored and DNA vaccines induced long-term immunity against Nipah virus infection. These findings suggest that the AdC68-G and DNA-G vaccines against NiV infection are promising candidates for further development.

September 22, 2023 - Phylex BioSciences previously published proof of principle of its second-generation nanoparticle mRNA vaccine technology, directly applicable to developing a Nipah virus vaccine.

September 12, 2023 - Reuters reported India's National Institute of Virology announced two fatal Nipah virus infections have been confirmed in Kerala state.

July 11, 2022 - U.S. NIH co-launches a phase 1 clinical trial of a mRNA Nipah virus vaccine.