Lyme-stopping shot in the works in Bay State
People who’ve had Lyme disease know just how debilitating the deer-borne infection can be, but a nonprofit is working on a shot that would prevent it.
Tests of Lyme PrEP, developed by MassBiologics of the UMass Chan Medical School, have shown promising results, said Dr. Mark K lempner, professor of medicine and former executive vice chancellor for MassBiologics.
“We identified the single antibody that led to immunity and tested it on animals, where it proved 100% effective” in fighting the disease, which in humans can cause chronic joint pain and have cardiac and neurological effects, Klempner said.
Lyme PrEP is not a vaccine, he said. It prevents infection by delivering a single, anti-Lyme antibody, or blood protein, directly to people rather than triggering their own immune system to make many antibodies, as vaccines do, Klempner said. If a person’s blood contains the correct antibody against the bacteria, the antibody can kill Borrelia in the tick’s gut before that bacteria has a chance to infect people, he said.
Now, 48 volunteers who have never been exposed to Lyme disease are participating in a clinical trial in Nebraska, where the disease is not endemic. The aim is to make certain there are no major adverse reactions in people and to see how long the Lyme PrEP antibody remains in their circulation.
So far, no major adverse reactions have been observed, Klempner said. The Lyme PrEP antibody lasts in circulation for at least nine months after the injection, so if the treatment is approved by the Food and
Drug Administration, people would get a shot once a year.
After the first phase of the clinical trial ends in August, trials involving more people are expected to begin next spring, he said.
“In order to demonstrate efficacy of Lyme PrEP to prevent Lyme disease, we will recruit participants with a heightened risk for Lyme disease, such as landscapers and people who spend lots of time outdoors, from populated areas where there is high risk of exposure to ticks that carry the Lyme disease bacteria,” he said. “We will compare how the shot works in participants who get the shot to participants who do not.”
Klempner expects the shot could be licensed and available to the public in 2024.
“Clearly Lyme disease is a big problem. There are hundreds of cases in New England alone every year,” said Dr. Philip Landrigan, a former epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Infection. “Anything that can safely reduce the number of infections is a good thing.”