Now that the future of the HIV/AIDS vaccine is out of his hands, University of Western Ontario researcher Chil Yong Kang isn’t about to waste any time.
Kang and his team of researchers from the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry are currently working on a vaccine for the Hepatitis C virus.
Kang is in the beginning stages of developing a vaccine for a different blood-transmitted disease, Hepatitis C. (Better known for his HIV/AIDS research, Kang is currently awaiting FDA approval to begin human clinical trials for the SAV001-H HIV/AIDS vaccine.)
While there are about 170 million people in the world chronically infected with Hepatitis C, a far larger population than the estimated 40 million people worldwide living in HIV/AIDS, there is no vaccine. Vaccines are available for Hepatitis A and B, but Hepatitis C, which causes an inflammation of the liver and can lead to cirrhosis of the liver or liver cancer, is currently unpreventable.
“The best way to prevent the liver cancers is by developing a vaccine to treat the HCV (Hepatitis C virus) infection,” says Kang, noting Sumagen Canada Inc., a supporter of his HIV/AIDS vaccine research, is also supporting this project.
To create the vaccine, the microbiology and immunology professor is using an antigen akin to the naturally occurring (not genetically modified) virus. He will use a killed, whole virus to produce the vaccine.
Only small amounts of HCV can be produced in culture cells, which has limited past attempts to produce enough for a vaccine.
“We have to genetically engineer another type of virus which hasn’t caused any infection or diseases in humans, but can carry the HCV gene in that virus,” he says. “It is not a human virus, but it can infect human cells and it is non-toxic to humans.” The vaccine would trigger cellular immunity.
Kang and his team have manufactured about 40 different recumbent viruses and are in the process of testing the immunogenicity on mice.
Kang is well aware of the potential impact either of the two vaccines for HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C would have if they prove to be successful in human clinical trials. But rather than take the credit, he says it would be “God’s work.”
“Both of them will have a strong impact on global health,” Kang says.