971556Vaccine against mosquito-borne diseasesClosedSmall Business Research InitiativeInnovate UKMosquitoes cause millions of deaths every year by spreading disease in humans. Mosquitoes are known to carry many infectious diseases from several different classes of microorganisms, including viruses and parasites found in their saliva. For example, Aedes sp.is the carrier for Zika, Dengue, Chikungunya and Yellow Fever viruses. More than half of the world’s population live in areas where these mosquito species are present. Despite many attempts to control the mosquito population and efforts to develop pathogen-specific vaccines, these diseases continue to be one of the major challenges to health and the economy in low and middle income countries. Imutex Limited has developed AGS-v, a multivalent vaccine that aims to protect humans against a variety of mosquito borne diseases. AGS-v does not target the specific pathogen but the mosquito. AGS-v contains four small proteins that mimic proteins found in the saliva of many mosquito species. During a blood feed, female mosquitoes secrete saliva in the bite site to help with the blood flow. If the mosquito is infected, pathogens will be found in its saliva. The immune response generated after vaccination with AGS-v is designed to fight the pathogen when the mosquito spits saliva with pathogen in the blood during a feed. In addition, when the mosquito feeds it takes up blood containing AGS-v specific immune response. This will impede feeding reducing the survival of the mosquito and thus blocking the transmission of the disease to another human. AGS-v is currently being tested for safety in a first-in-man clinical trial at the National Institutes of Health in the US. The funding requested to Innovate UK will go towards further developing AGS-v in a second clinical trial building up on the data gathered so far in order to improve dosage and formulation of AGS-v. In vitro efficacy of AGS-v in killing Zika and Chikungunya viruses will be explored and the effects of the vaccine on the survival of Aedes mosquito species will be assessed. Although Aedes aegypti is the main carrier of Zika and Chinkungunya, Aedes albopictus which has recently colonised southern Europe from Asia, has been shown to be able to carry those viruses too, hence becoming a threat to European countries too. AGS-v has been developed with low and middle income countries in mind. It has been optimised to require only two doses, to require no cold-chain and to be manufactured through a scalable low cost synthetic process.