Emergex advances vaccine candidate for tularemia

Emergex Vaccines Holding is progressing preclinical development of its intracellular bacterial vaccine candidate for tularemia, following the completion of successful ligandome generation.

Emergex intends to use its previously determined repertoire of Class I peptides to generate a CD8+ T-cell Adaptive Vaccine as a medical countermeasure for better preparedness against naturally occurring, accidental, or deliberate exposures to the bacterium that causes tularemia. Protection against Francisella tularensis is thought to be conferred and essential by CD8+ T-cell-mediated immunity, in contrast to humoral factors such as antibodies.

Professor Thomas Rademacher, CEO and co-founder of Emergex, commented: “Emergex recognises the importance of effective medical countermeasure development for a diversity of viral and intracellular bacterial threats. We believe that the field of T-cell priming vaccines can play an important role in national preparedness initiatives. Next generation vaccines, such as our T-cell Adaptive Vaccines, will enable the induction of targeted T-cell immunity via priming of naïve T-cells that recognise and remove infected cells and thereby cut short the infection cycle, sparing that person.”

Tularemia is a zoonotic infectious disease, categorised by symptoms including fever, skin ulcers, and occasionally pneumonia, and is found throughout the Northern Hemisphere. The intracellular bacterium is spread from animals (rodents, hares and rabbits) to humans most commonly through arthropod vectors (tick and deer fly bites), by drinking contaminated water, or through direct contact with infected animals. There are currently no approved vaccines for tularemia prevention, and subsequent infection is managed with antibiotic therapy.

Bioagents are categorised according to assessment of their risk to national security and are continuously monitored by governments as biodefense response strategy evolves. Tularemia is classified as a category A biothreat along with anthrax, smallpox, plague, viral hemorrhagic fevers (such as Ebola), and is considered a potential national security biothreat by the US government.