H2020 project CRUZIVAX

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Chagas is a neglected tropical disease endemic in 21 Latin-American countries caused by Trypanosoma cruzi infection. It is the largest parasitic disease burden in the Americas (>11,000,000 chronic infections) and the first cause of cardiac morbidity in poor areas. As a result of mass migration, Chagas disease spread into 19 non-endemic areas. Acute infections remain largely unnoticed due to mild symptoms thus often evolving into chronicity. 

Available drugs are mostly active during early infection and are associated with unpleasant side effects - responsible for 10-30% interruption of treatment. As a result, the development of an effective vaccine is imperative. The main objective of CRUZIVAX consortium is to perform preclinical and clinical phase 1 studies with a needle-free vaccine with proven efficacy in preclinical models. The vaccine is based on a structure-engineered trivalent chimeric antigen. 

iBET role in the consortium is to produce GLP-grade antigen to be used in preclinical immunogenicity and potency studies in dogs and non-human primates and in toxicology studies. iBET is also responsible to establish analytical assays for the biochemical and biophysical characterization of the antigen.

The CRUZIVAX project is coordinated by Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research and funded with more than 8M€ by European Union programme H2020.