Prospects of lassa fever candidate vaccines

Background: Lassa fever is an acute viral haemorrhagic disease caused by the Lassa virus (LASV). It is endemic in West Africa and infects about 300,000 people each year, leading to approximately 5000 deaths annually. The development of the LASV vaccine has been listed as a priority by the World Health Organization since 2018. Considering the accelerated development and availability of vaccines against COVID-19, we set out to assess the prospects of LASV vaccines and the progress made so far. Materials and Methods: We reviewed the progress made on twenty-six vaccine candidates listed by Salami et al. (2019) and searched for new vaccine candidates through Google Scholar, PubMed, and DOAJ from June to July 2021. We searched the articles published in English using keywords that included "vaccine" AND "Lassa fever" OR "Lassa virus" in the title/. Results: Thirty-four candidate vaccines were identified - 26 already listed in the review by Salami et al. and an additional 8, which were developed over the last seven years. 30 vaccines are still in the pre-clinical stage while 4 of them are currently undergoing clinical trials. The most promising candidates in 2019 were vesicular stomatitis virus-vectored vaccine and live-attenuated MV/LASV vaccine;both had progressed to clinical trials. Conclusions: Despite the focus on COVID-19 vaccines since 2020, LASV vaccine is under development and continues to make impressive progress, hence more emphasis should be put into exploring further clinical studies related to the most promising types of vaccines identified.

Virus Elimination Using High-Voltage Pulses in Aqueous Solutions

This article presents the results of the research conducted on bacteriophages inactivation using high-voltage (HV) short electric pulses. The bacteriophages are bacterial viruses, which share similar basic features in their structure to other viruses, so that they may be considered a first choice model for experimental studies on viral pathogens, including severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2). The aqueous solution of bacteriophages was subjected to the influence of high electric-field pulses, provided by a Marx generator. It had been observed that the electric discharge was a two-stage process where the initial inrush charging current was followed by a formation of a discharge channel due to local charge trapping and a secondary burst of current. The possible explanation of inactivation of bacteriophages could be due to the formation of discharge plasma observed during the experiments, followed by likely creation of radical species. Other plausible additional mechanisms include irreversible electroporation. Two different electrode configurations with different electric-field spatial distributions were examined. A complete 100% inactivation of the bacteriophages was achieved in the system featuring the uniform field distribution. This article novelty lies in the fact that it demonstrates 100% effectiveness of the HV pulses treatment in elimination of viruses, and proposes a method of capturing these pathogens from air. IEEE

Prospects of Lassa Fever Candidate Vaccines

Background: Lassa fever is an acute viral haemorrhagic disease caused by the Lassa virus (LASV). It is endemic in West Africa and infects about 300,000 people each year, leading to approximately 5000 deaths annually. The development of the LASV vaccine has been listed as a priority by the World Health Organization since 2018. Considering the accelerated development and availability of vaccines against COVID-19, we set out to assess the prospects of LASV vaccines and the progress made so far. Material(s) and Method(s): We reviewed the progress made on twenty-six vaccine candidates listed by Salami et al. (2019) and searched for new vaccine candidates through Google Scholar, PubMed, and DOAJ from June to July 2021. We searched the articles published in English using keywords that included "vaccine" AND "Lassa fever" OR "Lassa virus" in the title/. Result(s): Thirty-four candidate vaccines were identified - 26 already listed in the review by Salami et al. and an additional 8, which were developed over the last seven years. 30 vaccines are still in the pre-clinical stage while 4 of them are currently undergoing clinical trials. The most promising candidates in 2019 were vesicular stomatitis virus-vectored vaccine and live-attenuated MV/LASV vaccine;both had progressed to clinical trials. Conclusion(s): Despite the focus on COVID-19 vaccines since 2020, LASV vaccine is under development and continues to make impressive progress, hence more emphasis should be put into exploring further clinical studies related to the most promising types of vaccines identified. Copyright © 2022, African Traditional, Herbal Medicine Supporters Initiative. All rights reserved.