A new study from Saint Louis University published this month in the peer-reviewed journal Vaccine scrutinizes what in the future could be an alternative to the presently available anthrax vaccine.

The new type of vaccine, in its first human testing, produced the immune response that the doctors are looking for.

The Saint Louis University researcher, Geoffrey Gorse, M.D., who was the main author of the paper, conducted the clinical trial in 100 volunteers at four sites around the United States.

The investigational vaccine, rPA102 (made by VaxGen, Inc.) demonstrated a clear relationship between the amount of vaccine administered and the subsequent immune response.

"We were able to demonstrate in this study that the investigational anthrax vaccine produced an immune response that justifies further testing in larger studies," he said.

"We'll be using this data to help design strategies for testing of this vaccine in the future."

The vaccine, rPA102, is a recombinant Protective Antigen (PA) protein vaccine that was initially developed by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) which cannot cause anthrax infection.

The study, designed to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of escalating doses of the new vaccine compared to AVA (anthrax vaccine currently licensed for use in the United States) was conducted by Gorse of Saint Louis University in collaboration with colleagues at Baylor College of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University and VaxGen, Inc., the maker of the vaccine.

rPA102's Phase I study was funded by VaxGen's contract N01-AI-25494 with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) (a component of the National Institutes of Health).

It would still take awhile before this new vaccine become available in the market, healthcare providers patiently await.

"This type of research, five years after 9/11, continues to be very important to pursue," Gorse said. "We need a better vaccine to help protect people from anthrax infection, whether the vaccine is given before or soon after exposure to anthrax spores."

Source: Science Daily