Schistosomiasis vaccine
A Schistosomiasis vaccine is a vaccine against Schistosomiasis, a parasitic disease caused by several species of fluke of the genus Schistosoma. No effective vaccine for the disease exists yet. Schistosomiasis affects over 200 million people worldwide, mainly in rural agricultural and peri-urban areas of the third world, and approximately 10% suffer severe health complications from the infection. While chemotherapeutic drugs, such as praziquantel, oxamniquine and metrifonate both no longer on the market, are currently considered safe and effective for the treatment of schistosomiasis, reinfection occurs frequently following drug treatment, thus a vaccine is sought to provide long-term treatment. Additionally, experimental vaccination efforts have been successful in animal models of schistosomiasis.
Paramyosin has been proposed as a vaccine candidate.
At present Sm-p80 is the sole schistosome vaccine candidate that has been tested for its prophylactic and antifecundity efficacy in different vaccine formulations and approaches in two very different experimental animal models of infection and disease. Sm-p80-based vaccine have four effects: Reduction in adult worm numbers; Reduction in egg production ; Protection against acute schistosomiasis; Therapeutic effect on adult worms. This vaccine is now ready for human clinical trials.
Another target is Sm14.