The vaccine is one of the most important inventions in contemporary medicine. Thanks to this innovation, prevent two to three million deaths each year according to the World Health Organization (WHO). They already exist for a wide range of diseases but are still not enough. Now there is one against the Chikungunya virus that could very soon be a reality and Mexico is one of the countries that participates in its development.
In this case we refer to the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN). Together with the University of Oxford and the University of Texas successfully completed human trials of this promising immunization against viral infection transmitted by the Aedes mosquito.
In this regard, the director of the IPN, Dr. Arturo Reyes Sandoval, in charge of managing the funds, organizing the trial and leading the work team, explained that these results place the ChAdOx1 Chik vaccine, which he developed with his collaborators, as a strategy world leader. This is because only four projects have been successfully tested in humans in more than 50 years in which the Chikungunya fever virus has been isolated, identified, and during which attempts have been made to develop vaccines against this pathogen without much success. .
Promising results
He stressed that this research, which is supported by the National Vaccination Laboratory that is being created at the IPN, was recently published, under its main authorship, in the prestigious journal Nature Communications and in this link can be consulted. He stressed that it is considered by the editors as one of the 50 most important publications in the area of microbiology and infectious diseases, which is why it is mentioned in its section on Research Highlights, since it is one of the 4 leading vaccines that have been tested in humans worldwide.
He commented that the development of the vaccine was based on the adenovirus ChAdOx1, which has been used by Oxford and AstraZeneca as a vaccine platform, which expresses a protein from the SARS-CoV-2 virus that has been effective against COVID-19, and is being distributed globally.
He added that the adenovirus went through stages of genetic engineering to be able to express a cassette not with one, but with five proteins, and thus generate immune responses against much of the surface of the virus that causes Chikungunya Fever.
First tests in humans
The ChAdOx1 Chik injection was given to 24 healthy volunteers between the ages of 18 and 51, a common range used in phase I clinical trials in which a vaccine is administered to people for the first time.
The results indicated that 100 percent of the volunteers who received the vaccine, showed seroconversion, or the presence of antibodies against the Chikungunya virus regardless of the dose used, which allows to foresee that even very low doses would allow high levels of protection against Fever of Chikungunya.
Likewise, the group of scientists, led by Dr. Arturo Reyes Sandoval, measured the ability of the sera of vaccinated people to neutralize the Chikungunya Fever virus, through tests that quantify the ability of the serum to neutralize the virus and thus prevent it from penetrating its target cell.
The results indicated that even the lowest doses of the vaccine administered once, induced high levels of neutralization of the Chikungunya virus in 100 percent of the volunteers from day 14 after vaccination, remaining high during the six months in which the clinical trial lasted.
Chikungunya Fever, like Zika and Dengue, is a disease transmitted by the Aedes mosquito, which circulates widely throughout Mexico, particularly in hot and humid areas of the country, as well as in Central and South America and that can leave people with arthritis for the rest of their lives. It occurs intermittently, so it is to be expected that more epidemics will appear in the coming years in our region.