Lyme Disease Vaccine Update, Fall 2022

Lyme disease vaccine trials are ongoing in the fall of 2022.

What is the latest news on the Lyme disease vaccine? Jane Caffrey reports that there are new steps in the fight against Lyme disease. Both Pfizer and Valneva are conducting a clinical trial for a Lyme Disease vaccine, and it is now in phase three.

Lyme disease vaccine trials still underway.

Where are these Lyme disease vaccine trials?

Research is happening in neighboring Connecticut, at Stamford Health in Fairfield County. About 6,000 people across the globe are taking part in the study, and that includes 20 at Stamford Hospital.

“Last year, my 7-year-old actually got Lyme disease,” Zain Hoda explained. A side effect known as Lyme arthritis sent their son Reza to the hospital. “We have two kids and my wife had to stay home with one of them,” Zain Hoda said. “So it was just me in the hospital with my son for five days.”

It was a very traumatic experience for the young boy because he had to have surgery after his knee got infected. So by participating in the vaccine trial, the family wants to prevent something like this from happening again or to someone else. This is why they will be rolling up their sleeves for the next two-and-a-half years, taking part in the global clinical trial being conducted in places where Lyme disease is highly endemic, like Connecticut.

Read: Why is Lyme disease on the rise?

Dr. Michael Parry, chair of Infectious Diseases at Stamford Health, said, “When it becomes late in the course and hasn’t been aggressively treated upfront, Lyme Disease can produce all sorts of problems including:

Neurological Disease
Heart Disease
Prolonged Fatigue
Brain Fog”

As for how the Lyme Disease vaccine trial regimen works, each participant will receive four doses over the next 30 months. Some will get the new vaccine, while others will receive a placebo. “We will be following them with history, clinical symptoms, evidence of Lyme disease, blood tests, to evaluate how well this vaccine protects them against Lyme disease,” Dr. Parry said.

How long might a Lyme disease vaccine take to be approved?

He says if the clinical trial is successful, the timeline for when regulators would look at approving the vaccine would be in 2026 or 2027. “If a vaccine is 80 to 90 percent protective, it still would be a huge advance in the prevention of Lyme disease,” Dr. Parry said.

Researchers at Stamford Hospital are still seeking more pediatric participants, so they can gather enough data about how this vaccine works for kids. Participants for this study must be at least 5 years old.

For more information, the office of Dr. Parry can be reached at Stamford Health Medical Group, 29 Hospital Plaza, Suite 605, Stamford, CT 06902.

Dave Macchia, tick control enthusiast — Dave Macchia, Central Mass tick control enthusiast

Could a painful tick bite be the key to Lyme disease prevention?

A painful tick bite? What a Novel idea!

I recently wrote a blog about a new Lyme vaccine that uses antibodies, but this could be the most interesting method of Lyme prevention yet. A new Novel Lyme disease vaccine is being tested in the lab with great results. The same mRNA technology used for the COVID vaccines is being used to deliver this vaccine to guinea pigs at Yale University. This idea is so simple, it’s genius – make us sensitive to a tick bite!

Could a painful tick bite prevent Lyme disease?

This vaccine does not target pathogens.

Unlike other vaccines that directly target disease-causing pathogens, this potential vaccine targets tick saliva. Ticks attach to our skin, at which time disease-causing bacteria are passed into our blood stream through their saliva. Scientists have created a vaccine that causes a skin reaction to tick saliva. This reaction causes us to actually feel a tick bite. And as we know, it takes 36 to 48 hours for a tick to infect a host with Lyme disease. If we feel the tick bite immediately, the tick can be found. Therefore, negating attachment or disease transmission.

But it’s not just for Lyme disease prevention!

dog tick — Novel vaccine could prevent myriad tick diseases.

This same technology could prevent a variety of diseases that are passed through infected tick bites. Having identified 19 proteins in black-legged ticks, which can be targeted with such a vaccine, the same could be done with other tick species to prevent the illnesses they spread. This is great news for New England residents, where we have a few species of ticks – black-legged (deer) ticks, dog ticks, and lone star ticks.

What if the tick gains attachment anyway?

Nothing is fool-proof. Imagine that you have had this Lyme vaccine, but failed to feel it right away because you are moving around – doing yard work, hiking, etc. Guinea pigs in the lab showed resistance to Lyme pathogens even when the tick gained attachment. Half of the non-immunized guinea pigs were infected with Lyme disease in the study – all having been bitten by infected ticks. None of the immunized guinea pigs were infected when the tick was removed at the time of the skin reaction (redness, pain). Allowing a tick to remain attached to immunized guinea pigs also resulted in zero Lyme infections. Due to the skin reaction, ticks were not able to feed voraciously on these pigs. However, when three infected ticks were left attached to all guinea pigs, some infection did result in immunized pigs.

Until vaccines are lab tested, approved, and widely available, your only sure method of Lyme prevention is by preventing tick bites in the first place. This means personal tick protection when you are outdoors away from home and professional tick control at home.

How close are we to a Lyme disease vaccine in 2020?

While a Lyme vaccine for dogs has been available since 2009, there is still no vaccine available for humans.

deer ticks spread Lyme disease — Deer ticks spread Lyme disease to dogs and humans

The Nobivac Lyme vaccine for dogs went on the market in 2009. This vaccine is recommended for dogs, which are at high infection risk. That means dogs, who live in areas with large deer tick populations, like Central Massachusetts. While Merck’s studies show the vaccine to be more than 99% safe, pet owners are still uncertain about allowing their dogs to get it. Will we be receptive to a Lyme disease vaccine for humans? When can we expect to see a Lyme vaccine?

The Lyme vaccine that was

A Lyme vaccine for humans was introduced in the late 1990’s, but was pulled from the market after only three years. The vaccine was surrounded with uncertainty. How long would it last? Would we require a yearly booster? Add to that, this Lyme vaccine had to be given with a series of shots over a one-year period before immunity was achieved. There were also questionable side effects.

Will a new Lyme disease vaccine be worth the risk?

Lyme vaccine update for 2020

Traditional vaccine approach underway
In 2017, the FDA fast-tracked Lyme vaccine trials by French biotech company, Valneva. Phase one of their clinical trials showed promising results for efficacy and safety. Joined by pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer in 2020, they are now co-developing the vaccine. Phase two trials are underway now in North America and Europe. This phase is expected to be completed any time, and results released within a few months.

Lyme vaccine 2020 — One traditional Lyme vaccine is in clinical trials now

A new method of Lyme prevention is in the works
Vaccines work when proteins from the disease-causing agents are introduced to patients. This triggers the body to begin producing an immune response by making antibodies to fight the disease. One problem with this method is the time it takes for the human body to develop immunity. Is a new approach the better answer for Lyme disease prevention?

Mark S. Klempner, MD, executive vice chancellor for MassBiologics and professor of medicine at University of Massachusetts Medical School, thinks so. He is currently working to develop a method, which delivers an anti-Lyme antibody directly to the patient. This eliminates the need for the lengthy response required for the body to build antibodies. He says, “Unlike a vaccine, Lyme PrEP uses a single human antibody, or blood protein, to kill the bacteria in the tick’s gut while it takes its blood drink, before the bacteria can get into the human host.” Dr. Klempner’s Lyme prevention would be a once-yearly injection. This method of protection has show early promise, with a 100% success rate in mice. Phase one clinical trials are set to begin late in 2020, with phases two and three following through 2022.

Lyme prevention in 2020

tick tubes for Lyme prevention — Tick tubes help reduce tick populations

Lyme disease prevention remains a non-clinical approach. This means using tick protection when you are outdoors, and protecting your property with professional tick control barrier spray. Reputable Central Mass tick control companies can provide tick protection all year long. This means barrier tick sprays every couple of weeks from springtime through fall. Then, using tick tubes in the fall and winter. Not only will barrier spray eliminate up to 95% of the ticks in your yard, but tick tubes will break their life cycle to decrease the number of ticks that emerge in the spring.

Tag: Lyme disease vaccine