Vaccine to Treat Gum Disease on The Way

 |  General News, General News (Pros)

CSL Limited, Australia’s leading biopharmaceutical company, has today
announced that a vaccine to treat severe gum disease is being developed in a
new collaboration with Sanofi Pasteur, the world’s leading global manufacturer of
vaccines.

CSL has signed an agreement with Sanofi Pasteur to fund a program in the CRC
for the further development of a vaccine to prevent and treat the severe gum
disease peridontitis.
Up to 30% of Australian adults suffer from the wide-spread gum disease, which
causes gums to bleed and teeth to fall out. The condition has also been linked
with heart disease, stroke, adverse pregnancy outcomes, dementia and cancer.
Following more than ten years of research, scientists from The University of
Melbourne and CSL, in the Cooperative Research Centre for Oral Health Science
have identified candidate vaccine antigens for periodontitis.
“Periodontitis is a serious disease and dentists face a major challenge in treating
it, because most people will not know they have the disease until it’s too late and
the infection has progressed to advanced stages” said Professor Eric Reynolds,
AO, CEO of the CRC for Oral Health Science and the Head of The University of
Melbourne’s Dental School.
“Traditional treatment for the disease often involves scaling and cleaning, and
even surgery in an effort to contain the bacterial infection.” He said.
This new vaccine approach targets the ‘ring leader’ of a group of pathogenic
bacteria that cause periodontitis, the bacterium called Porphyromonas gingivalis.
“We are very excited about this novel approach to the disease, “said Professor
Reynolds. “It will provide dentists and patients with a specific treatment, which
prevents disease progression, rather than managing its symptoms and damaging
consequences.”
“It has taken over ten years to develop the vaccine to this stage,” said Dr Andrew
Cuthbertson, CSL’s Chief Scientific Officer. “CSL is pleased to advise of an
agreement with Sanofi Pasteur to undertake a funded program to develop a
vaccine for the treatment of periodontal disease caused by Porphyromonas
gingivalis.”
The vaccine development program involves identifying the bacterial peptides and
proteins that trigger the immune response, and using these as the basis of
vaccines. The vaccines are being trialled in mouse models of periodontal disease
and following a positive response, a vaccine will progress to clinical trials.
Should this program be successful, Sanofi Pasteur has an option to an exclusive
world-wide license to commercialise the intellectual property associated with
these products.

---