One Step Closer to a Lyme Disease Vaccine
Phase II trial results show VLA15, the Valneva Lyme disease vaccine, induces antibodies.
Like many people, I enjoy taking walks in the woods and playing with my dogs at the park. Where I live, every nature walk or even being in my own backyard carries the risk of getting Lyme disease. Consequently, I have been eagerly waiting for a Lyme vaccine. Valneva has a vaccine that is showing promise in Phase II clinical trials. The results are encouraging enough that Pfizer and Valneva have joined forces to bring this to Phase III testing and hopefully to the market.
Lyme Disease
Lyme disease is caused by several related species of bacteria (Borrelia burgdorferi, Borrelia afzelii, and Borrelia garinii). A person gets the bacterial infection from a bite from an infected tick. Sometimes, but not always, the tick bite will produce a telltale bull’s eye rash, which indicates the tick bite delivered the bacteria.
The ticks that transmit this disease are not very large and can transmit the bacteria at the adult and nymph stages of their life cycle. The adults are the size of a sesame seed and the immature nymphs are the size of a poppy seed. Nymphs, in particular, can be difficult to detect. The longer the tick stays attached, the greater the chance of…
