Progress and Challenges Associated with the Development of Ricin Toxin Subunit Vaccines

Overview

Journal Expert Rev Vaccines

Date 2016 Mar 22

PMID 26998662

Citations 18

Authors

David J Vance

Nicholas J Mantis

Affiliations

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Abstract

The past several years have seen major advances in the development of a safe and efficacious ricin toxin vaccine, including the completion of two Phase I clinical trials with two different recombinant A subunit (RTA)-based vaccines: RiVax™ and RVEc™ adsorbed to aluminum salt adjuvant, as well as a non-human primate study demonstrating that parenteral immunization with RiVax elicits a serum antibody response that was sufficient to protect against a lethal dose aerosolized ricin exposure. One of the major obstacles moving forward is assessing vaccine efficacy in humans, when neither ricin-specific serum IgG endpoint titers nor toxin-neutralizing antibody levels are accepted as definitive predictors of protective immunity. In this review we summarize ongoing efforts to leverage recent advances in our understanding of RTA-antibody interactions at the structural level to develop novel assays to predict vaccine efficacy in humans.

Citing Articles

Serum antibody profiling identifies vaccine-induced correlates of protection against aerosolized ricin toxin in rhesus macaques.

Roy C, Ehrbar D, Van Slyke G, Doering J, Didier P, Doyle-Meyers L NPJ Vaccines. 2022; 7(1):164.

PMID: 36526642 PMC: 9755799. DOI: 10.1038/s41541-022-00582-x.

Durable Immunity to Ricin Toxin Elicited by a Thermostable, Lyophilized Subunit Vaccine.

Novak H, Doering J, Ehrbar D, Donini O, Mantis N mSphere. 2021; 6(6):e0075021.

PMID: 34730377 PMC: 8565519. DOI: 10.1128/mSphere.00750-21.

An Electrochemical Approach to Follow and Evaluate the Kinetic Catalysis of Ricin on hsDNA.

Oliveira G, Schneedorf J Life (Basel). 2021; 11(5).

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A Simple, Fast and Portable Method for Electrochemical Detection of Adenine Released by Ricin Enzymatic Activity.

Oliveira G, Schneedorf J Toxins (Basel). 2021; 13(4).

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An intranasally administered monoclonal antibody cocktail abrogates ricin toxin-induced pulmonary tissue damage and inflammation.

Rong Y, Torres-Velez F, Ehrbar D, Doering J, Song R, Mantis N Hum Vaccin Immunother. 2019; 16(4):793-807.

PMID: 31589555 PMC: 7227631. DOI: 10.1080/21645515.2019.1664243.

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