title: Translational Activities to Enable NTD Vaccines.
abstract: There is an urgent need to develop new vaccines for tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and malaria, as well as for chronic and debilitating infections known as neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). The term "NTD" emerged at the beginning of the new millennium to describe a set of diseases that are characterized as (1) poverty related, (2) endemic to the tropics and subtropics, (3) lacking public health attention and inadequate industrial investment, (4) having poor research funding and a weak research and development (R&D) pipeline, (5) usually associated with high morbidity but low mortality, and (6) often having no safe and long-lasting treatment available. Many additional challenges to the current control and elimination programs for NTDs exist. These include inconsistent performance of diagnostic tests, regional differences in access to treatment and in treatment outcome, lack of integrated surveillance and vector/intermediate host control, and impact of ecological climatic changes particularly in regions where new cases are increasing in previously nonendemic areas. Moreover, the development of NTD vaccines, including those for schistosomiasis, leishmaniasis, leprosy, hookworm, and Chagas disease are being led by nonprofit product development partnerships (PDPs) working in partnership with academic and industrial partners, contract research organizations, and in some instances vaccine manufacturers in developing countries. In this review, we emphasize global efforts to fuel the development of NTD vaccines, the translational activities needed to effectively move promising vaccine candidates to Phase-I clinical trials and some of the hurdles to ensuring their availability to people in the poorest countries of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
authors: PAI Life Sciences, Seattle, WA, United States.
authors: S A
authors: SA
authors: Gray
authors: Infectious Disease Research Institute, Seattle, WA, United States; Department of Global Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States.
authors: R N
authors: RN
authors: Coler
authors: PAI Life Sciences, Seattle, WA, United States; Infectious Disease Research Institute, Seattle, WA, United States; Department of Global Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States.
authors: D
authors: D
authors: Carter
authors: Department of Internal Medicine, Texas Tech University School of Medicine, Lubbock, TX, United States; Center of Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases, Texas Tech University School of Medicine, Lubbock, TX, United States. Electronic address: afzal.siddiqui@ttuhsc.edu.
authors: A A
authors: AA
authors: Siddiqui
mesh_terms: D000941:Antigens / Q000378:metabolism; D058069:Neglected Diseases / Q000191:economics / Q000628:therapy*; D057170:Translational Research, Biomedical; D014330:Tropical Medicine / Q000191:economics; D014612:Vaccines / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000941:Antigens; D014612:Vaccines
keywords: antigens; expression system; fermentation; schistosomiasis; vaccines