Innovation: The first European vaccine against canine visceral leishmaniasis

This first step, within the scope of a public-private partnership between the IRD, Bio Véto Test and Virbac, should lead to the development of a human vaccine

Visceral leishmaniasis is one of the most serious, fatal parasitic infections in the world and is a major public health problem in Latin America, Asia, Africa and southern Europe.

Indeed, it is estimated that 60,000 people die as a result of this disease every year, and 350 million individuals are exposed to it, in 96 countries.

The canine population, which is a source of parasites that could potentially be transferred to humans, is itself greatly affected: 25 million dogs (2/3 of dogs) are exposed in the Mediterranean area (south of France included), 10 % of dogs are infected, 5 % develop the disease and die prematurely without or through the failure of treatment.

Researchers from the IRD, belonging to the UMR INTERTRYP (Cirad, IRD) took an interest in canine leishmaniasis.

Research conducted with a host which is a natural source of parasites such as the dog have made it possible to establish an in vivo immunity study model which was the first step in developing a vaccine.

A public-private partnership between the IRD, Bio Véto Test and Virbac was then used to develop the first European anti-parasitic vaccine against canine leishmaniasis, CaniLeish®, available in Portugal since late May 2011 and in France since September 2011.

Towards a human vaccine

On 6th December, the IRD presented the key stages in developing a canine vaccine and tackling the current research for a human vaccine. In fact, there are currently two projects at the UMR INTERTRYP:

• Accredited by a competitiveness cluster, VAXILEISH aims to identify the main active constituents in CaniLeish®, in order to develop a second generation synthetic vaccine, better defined and adapted to human vaccination.
• The second project, RAPSODI, is being conducted within the scope of a consortium bringing together private (Virbac) and public (France, Spain, Tunisia, India and Peru) partners. The success of these two complementary projects should represent a great opportunity to speed up the development of a vaccine against the most severe forms of human leishmaniasis.

Furthermore, researchers from the UMR MIVEGEC (CNRS, IRD, Montpelier 1 University) are carrying out multi-disciplinary research to monitor and prevent leishmaniasis (vectorial aspects, drug resistance, leishmania-vector interactions, parasite biology).

En savoir plus : www.ird.fr/
www.virbac.fr