With the antibiotic-resistant bacteria that affects more than 100 million people annually, Queensland researchers hope to create a gonorrhoea vaccine that would be a first in the world.
If the sexually transmitted infection is not treated, it can cause blindness in babies and infertility in mothers.
Gonorrhea can have major long-term effects on reproductive health, despite the fact that most individuals dislike discussing STDs, according to Professor Kate Seib of Griffith University’s Institute for Glycomics.
Up to 80% of the patients are asymptomatic, with women being disproportionately affected.
“Unless you have active screening you may not know you have it, which means you may be transmitting it, but also it’s still causing damage to your reproductive tract,” Seib said.
“You can lose your ability to conceive even while you’re afflicted.”
Seib has been researching the bacteria for more than ten years and is optimistic that a recent cooperation with LimmaTech Biologics in Switzerland will result in clinical trials for a vaccine within the coming year.
The development of a novel vaccination could take three to five years.
Without it, treating gonorrhoea entails administering medicines, using condoms to prevent transmission, or abstaining from sexual activity.
that it can adapt to prevent being killed by antibiotics, “explained Seib.
Since the 1940s, numerous different antibiotics have been employed, and the bacteria have developed a resistance to each one.
We are now down to our final resort, and in some cases, germs that are resistant to these drugs have also been found.”
LimmaTech is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company that develops vaccines for the prevention of life-threatening diseases.
The study is a piece of the company’s in-house research pipeline aimed at countering the rising problem of antibiotic resistance.
According to Griffith Professor Mike Jennings, “We have identified gonococcal vaccine antigens that exhibit excellent potential, and the development effort will utilise LimmaTech platform technology to develop the vaccine product.”
More than 105 million individuals are infected with gonorrhoea annually, making it the second most widespread sexually transmitted infection in the world.
HIV transmission and infection risk are both increased by infection.
Griffith has agreed to an exclusive licence and co-development plan for the global development and marketing of the vaccine candidate.
The agreement also includes royalties on product sales, licence and milestone fees, and investments in research and development.
Researchers from QLD advance the first gonorrhoea vaccine in the globe.
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