Plague may be something you associate with school history lessons, but the scientists behind the Covid vaccine are now tackling the centuries-old bacterial threat.
The UK scientists behind the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine have started their first trial for a new plague vaccine.
The first phase of the trial will see at least 40 healthy 18 to 55-year-olds test the vaccine, which will use the same technology as the Covid-19 jab.
Most people see plagues as old diseases such as the Black Death plague that killed nearly half of the population. But some cases of plagues still exist in rural areas of Africa, Asia, and America. In 2017, an outbreak killed 171 people in Madagascar.
If given early, antibodies can be used to treat plagues. However, many of the regions that are at risk of an outbreak are very remote. A plague vaccine could therefore help save lives. The trial will asses how the body recognises and learns to fight the plague after taking the jab.
Similar to the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, the jab uses a weakened version of a common cold virus - adenovirus - which usually impacts chimpanzees. The virus has been genetically altered so it cannot cause an infection in people.
This new vaccine doesn’t contain plague bacterium and so cannot cause plague. However, it does include added genes that make proteins from the plague bacterium, called Yersinia pestis. This should teach the body’s immune system how to fend off the real infection if it ever needs to.
Investigators say this approach to vaccines could be used for other diseases.
Oxford Vaccine Group senior clinical researcher Dr Maheshi Ramasamy said: “We’ve already done clinical trials using similar technology against a bacterium, meningitis B, and a virus, Zika. But we’re also looking to develop vaccines against new and emerging diseases such as Lassa fever or the Marburg virus”
The trial will last for at least a year and is funded by Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, the national funding agency investing in science and research in the UK.