Looks like the scientists and medical experts from Oxford University are slowly working its way to complete a medical breakthrough as they move on to the next stage of development for an Ebola vaccine. The research, which is part of the project dubbed as EBOVAC2, is also participated by project coordinator French Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM), Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, Le Centre Muraz, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Inserm Transfert (IT).
The researchers from the University of Oxford Department of Paediatrics' Oxford Vaccine Group have started its recruitment of volunteers for its phase II study. In August, more enrollment efforts in France are expected through the leadership of INSERM. In this next phase of the study, the researchers are looking at gathering more than 600 adult volunteers from UK and France, who are generally healthy.
The goals of the EBOVAC2 include identifying more details about the vaccine's safety profile, including the manner in which the regimen subjects the immune system to safeguard the body against Ebola, and the most suitable and efficient timings of vaccine administration. To achieve this objective, the researchers will administer the vaccines to the volunteers at varying gaps. The interval difference will range from 28, 56 and 84 days.
The vaccine being used for the study consists of two main ingredients, which are to be administered a few weeks apart. The first or "prime" dose is said to initiate an immune response within the volunteer's body while the second or "booster" dose is said to enhance and elevate the response of the immune response to Ebola. As per the initial findings of the preliminary phase of the study comprising of 87 volunteers, temporary reactions, expected of the routine vaccination practice were noted. The prime-boost vaccine regimen was also found to be immunogenic, no matter which one was administered first or last.
A separate team from the Jenner Institute, also from the Oxford University, has been investigating a completely different vaccine for Ebola called the ChAd3 EBOZ. The project has already reached Senegal, wherein the first volunteers of the project at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire le Dantec in Dakar already received the first vaccinations during the early part of July and the booster dose after a week. If this trial shows a positive outcome, it would serve as a choice of intervention for the battle against an Ebola outbreak with a swift immunization program. Testings for this accelerated regimen are also being performed in the UK.
The researchers test 38 and 40 volunteers in UK and Senegal respectively. These trails are said to initially identify if the safety profile of the vaccines are acceptable and that it indeed stimulate an immune response. The researchers are looking at completing the recruitment process by the latter part of August.
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