Descrizione del progetto
Vaccini e anticorpi contro la febbre emorragica
Il virus della febbre emorragica Crimea-Congo (CCHFV) viene trasmesso agli esseri umani principalmente dalle zecche. Il progetto CCHFVACIM, finanziato dall’UE, si concentra sullo sviluppo di contromisure profilattiche e terapeutiche per combattere tale virus, tra cui un vaccino a base di mRNA e anticorpi monoclonali immunoterapeutici. Basandosi sui successi ottenuti in passato, il progetto adotta una piattaforma strategica fondata sull’approccio «One Health» mediante l’impiego di modelli animali avanzati e l’istituzione di una biobanca ricavata dai pazienti. L’iniziativa, che contribuisce allo sviluppo dell’infrastruttura europea, si prefigge di creare una tabella di marcia efficace per lo svolgimento di sperimentazioni cliniche, diffondendo i risultati alle comunità scientifiche e alle organizzazioni sanitarie. Nel complesso, il lavoro svolto nell’ambito di CCHFVACIM dovrebbe migliorare la preparazione alle epidemie di CCHFV, sostenendo la mitigazione dell’impatto esercitato dalla relativa patologia.
Obiettivo
The CCHFVACIM project is an ambitious collaborative effort aimed at developing both prophylactic and therapeutic effective countermeasures against Crimean Congo Haemorrhagic Fever Virus (CCHFV), one of the most threatening vector-borne pathogens, widely distributed, including in the European continent.
Deep structural biology studies on viral glycoproteins and investigation of the immunogenicity of the viral antigens will be combined with optimisation of an mRNA vaccine candidate against the virus and characterisation of the resulting protective immunity, as well as with the development of immunotherapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) based on CCHFV’s antigenic targets.
To achieve the overarching goals, the CCHFVACIM project will build on the success of previous projects such as CCHFever (FP7), CCHFVaccine (H2020) and go the extra mile by initiating a unique One-Health platform strategy to address different aspects of this severe public health threat. On one hand, the project will use several advanced animal models (mice, sheep, and non-human primate) to assess and compare the efficacy of mRNA vaccine candidates, mAbs and therapeutic mRNA; on the other hand, it will establish a biobank from CCHF patients to build up a pipeline for the production of mAbs against CCHFV from their B cells.
Importantly, the project will also contribute to capacity building of European infrastructures, with the establishment of a platform on mRNA-based vaccine at one of the partner institutions.
Ultimately, CCHFVACIM will permit to develop a road map to bring the most efficacious vaccine candidates and immunotherapy tools to clinical trial Phase I in humans.
The project results will be widely disseminated among the scientific community, public health authorities, non-governmental organisations, outbreak management teams, and hospitals, with the final scope of both contributing to contain the burden of CCHF disease and increasing preparedness to new outbreaks.
Campo scientifico
- natural sciencesbiological scienceszoologymammalogyprimatology
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencespublic healthepidemiologyepidemics prevention
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiologyvirology
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicineimmunologyimmunotherapy
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesmolecular biologystructural biology
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation ActionsCoordinatore
171 82 Solna
Svezia