Bee sting vaccine and other allergy remedies on the way

Utilising a special adjuvant, Australian researchers have developed a vaccine for European honeybee stings that has been deemed highly effective in laboratory tests. In response to these results, they are now conducting clinical trials on humans using ant venom therapy to further test the effectiveness of the adjuvant in insect sting vaccines.

“There are more people in Australia dying from sting allergies than nut allergies, but it still flies under the radar,” said Professor Robert Heddle, lead researcher and chief pathologist at SA Pathology, who noted that the difficult task of obtaining the insect venom and high cost of manufacturing has previously made it difficult to commercialise a sufficient number of high-quality vaccines.

“It’s a dangerous manufacturing process because the researchers get stung themselves and you don’t get much from just one of them so you need a lot,” added Professor Nikolai Petrovsky, managing director of South Australian biotech company Vaxine.

Now, the researchers have enhanced the effectiveness of bee sting vaccines using an adjuvant created by Vaxine. It is called Advax and has also been used to develop vaccines for seasonal and pandemic influenza, hepatitis, malaria, SARS and, most recently, river blindness.

The adjuvant acts as a turbocharger to help the body’s immune system recognise and target venom faster than other contemporary methods as it is injected into the body. Because the venom is easier to recognise, smaller doses of the scarce insect venom could potentially be used in each vaccine, helping to reduce costs of production as well.

“With the help of delta-inulin (Advax), we seem to have enhanced responses without it needing to be chemically combined and it is a much cheaper option,” said Professor Heddle.

A commercialised version of the bee vaccine would protect people with allergies against reactions, though it would require them to take multiple doses over a period of three years to build up their immune system. The adjuvant could potentially also be used as a nasal vaccine, with Professor Petrovsky currently in talks with the US Government about vaccines for dust mites and pollen.

Professor Heddle and his team have now begun trials on a vaccine for hopper ant or jack jumper ant stings. The studies are being conducted in collaboration with the Royal Hobart Hospital in Tasmania.

This is a modified version of a news item published by The Lead South Australia under Creative Commons.

Image courtesy of Darko Mareš under CC BY 2.0