According to a recent news article, Vanderbilt University Medical Center is working with the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) to expand rapid development of monoclonal antibodies that can defend against emerging infections and other critical biological threats and possibly prevent the next pandemic.
The article says, “In June, James Crowe Jr., MD, Robert Carnahan, PhD, and colleagues in the Vanderbilt Vaccine Center (VVC) began an ‘antibody sprint’ to test how quickly they can develop neutralizing monoclonal antibodies against hantaviruses, potentially lethal viruses that attack critical organs, including the lungs and kidneys.”
Crowe directs the VVC and is the Ann Scott Carell Professor and a professor of Pediatrics and Pathology, Microbiology & Immunology at VUMC.
“VUMC’s antibody collaboration with the DOD goes back to January 2018, when the medical center signed a five-year cooperative agreement with the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop protective treatments that can be rushed to health care providers within weeks after a viral outbreak — anywhere in the world,” the article adds.
Further, “By April, less than three months after their first sprint began, VVC researchers and colleagues in Boston, Seattle and St. Louis developed a protective antibody that potentially will prevent the spread of Zika. The mosquito-transmitted virus can cause severe birth defects in babies whose mothers were infected while pregnant.”
DARPA’s Pandemic Protection Platform (P3) program was transitioned in 2023 to the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense (JPEO-CBRND) and its Joint Project Lead for CBRND Enabling Technologies (JPL CBRND EB) as part of JPEO-CBRND’s Medical Countermeasures Platform Technologies (MCMPT) P3 program.
Hantaviruses, according to the article, are largely transmitted by rodents, but they also may be spread through close human contact. Presently circulating in Eastern Europe, they can cause severe upper respiratory disease with a fatality rate nearing 40%.
The article notes, “Last year, VVC researchers, with colleagues at the University of Oxford, described how, at the molecular level, a human monoclonal antibody isolated at VUMC prevents infection by a New World hantavirus called Sin Nombre. This work is an important step toward developing the first effective protection against the virus.”
“In June, VUMC launched a first-in-human clinical trial to determine the safety and efficacy of an experimental monoclonal antibody isolated by the VVC team against enterovirus D68 (EV-D68),” the article comments. “The virus can cause severe respiratory disease and—in rare cases—a debilitating, polio-like neurologic condition.”
VVC’s list of target viruses is extensive and growing and the research infrastructure at VUMC is expanding, with additional BSL3 (biosafety level 3) laboratories, and more than $100 million in new extramural support, Crowe noted in the article.
