Prophylactic Multi-Subunit Vaccine against Chlamydia trachomatis
Invention Novelty
Despite significant research efforts over the last seven decades to establish a vaccination strategy against Chlamydia trachomatis, most vaccine development programs have been unsuccessful. Scientists of Hannover Medical School, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, and Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf in a novel approach now developed adjuvanted multi-component subunit vaccine 5cVAC against C. trachomatis that elicits a high level of protection after nasal application. Notably, in a mouse lung infection model 5cVAC established cross-serovar protection against C. trachomatis serovars E and D from the urogenital, L2 from the lymphogranuloma, and serovar A from the trachoma biovar. Moreover, long-lasting 5cVAC-specific antibodies and T cell responses have been found in the vaccinated animals.
Value Proposition
C. trachomatis is a major cause of sexually transmitted disease in developed countries. According to WHO, there were 130 million new cases in 2015, and due to different serovars, C. trachomatis can repetitively infect the same person. Besides painful and difficult to treat pelvic inflammation, 1 out of 200 urogenital infections leads to permanent tubal infertility. A successful cross-serovar vaccination against C. trachomatis therefore is of great medical and societal need.
Bacterial load up to 100 fold lower in mouse lungs on day 7 of challenge infection with serovars E, D, L2, A after intranasal vaccination with adjuvanted 5cVAC (Lanfermann et al. modified)
Technology Description
Four recombinant Pmp family-members and Ctad1 from C. trachomatis serovar E, all of which participate in adhesion and binding of chlamydial elementary bodies to host cells, were combined with the mucosal adjuvant cyclic-di-adenosine monophosphate (c-di-AMP). Intranasal application led to a high degree of cross-serovar protection against urogenital and ocular strains of C. trachomatis, which lasted at least five months. Critical evaluated parameters were body weight, clinical score, chlamydial load, a granulocyte marker and the cytokines IFN-γ/TNF-α in lung homogenate. Vaccine antigen-specific antibodies and a mixed Th1/Th2/Th17 T cell response with multi-functional CD4+ and CD8+ T cells correlate with protection.
Commercial Opportunity
The technology is available for co-development or licensing.
Development Status
Vaccine candidate 5cVAC has been successfully evaluated in a mouse vaccination-lung challenge infection model.
Patent Situation
European application EP4032545A1 with priority of 2021 is pending.
Further Reading
Lanfermann et al. (2021) Prophylactic Multi-Subunit Vaccine against Chlamydia trachomatis: In Vivo Evaluation in Mice. Vaccines (Basel) 2021 Jun 6;9(6):609. doi: 10.3390/vaccines9060609.
Institute of Origin
