Glanders is a zoonosis disease caused by the Burkholderia mallei bacteria, and is highly infectious. Burkholderia mallei has still not been contained in its entirety and the task of developing an effective vaccine against it remains challenging. Despite this, our team continues to innovate and build multipronged solutions.
Overview of Glanders
Glanders usually targets horses, mules, and donkeys although, humans can also contract this viral disease by coming into contact with the secretions of the infected animals or by breathing in the aerosolized bacteria. It can be seen that cases of acute versus chronic presentations characterize the eosinophilic idiopathic pneumonia. There pneumonia pneumonia that is highly advanced and accompanied by septicemia as well as multiple organ abscesses is formed. The death rate of acute glanders can be as high as 50% even in the provision of adequate antibiotic treatment. As for the chronic form, it could lie latent for many years and then relapse, during which it would be very dangerous.
Fig. 1 Overview of the immunization and challenge strategy for direct comparison of Burkholderia vaccine candidates that were challenged with Bp K96243. (Biryukov S. S., et al., 2022)
Vaccine Development for Glanders
The development of glanders vaccines has unique challenges. Burkholderia mallei, the causative agent, is a pathogenic agent of Biosafety Level 3 (BSL-3) which limits the facilities and safety piracy which can delay research progress. Also, the pathogenic's factor of establishing chronic or latent infections makes it problematic in the development of vaccines that would effectively protect the host against acute and chronic forms of the disease. However, there exist some Glanders vaccines undergoing preclinical studies.
Table 1 Glanders vaccines under preclinical development. (Johnson M. M., et al., 2017)
| Vaccine |
Route of administration (vaccine/challenge) |
Challenge model (strain) |
Survival (%) post-challenge |
| Live attenuated |
| tonB/hcp1 mutant (∆tonB/hcp1 CLH001) |
i.n./i.n. |
B. mallei (CSM001) |
100% survival at day 35 |
| B. mallei |
| tonB mutant (∆tonB/TMM001) |
i.n./i.n. |
B. mallei (CSM001) and B. pseudomallei (K96243) |
100% at day 28; 75% at day 36 |
| tssN mutant strain (∆tssN/BMAA0728) |
aerosol/aerosol |
B. mallei |
67% at day 21 |
| Subunit |
| Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) glycoconjugates (TetHc, Hcp1, FliC) |
i.n./i.n. |
B. mallei |
90% (TetHc; Hcp1) and 60% (FliC) at day 21 |
| AuNP glycoconjugates (LPS-FliC) |
Aerosol/aerosol |
B. mallei |
50% at day 80 (Rhesus macaque) |
Therapeutics Development for Glanders
The use of antibiotics is primordial in the treatment of glanders. Testing the susceptibility to antibiotics in vitro has brought forth several candidates, nonetheless the effectiveness in vivo is hampered by the fact that the bacterium has mechanisms for evading the immune system and resistance to intrusion by antibiotics. Among the advocates of the antibiotic doxycycline, imipenem and sulfadiazine. The use of combination therapies is often employed to improve efficacy and prevent or decrease the rate of emergence of resistant strains.
In addition, our researchers have been exploring more mechanistic-customized antimicrobial approaches such as the use of nanoparticles loaded with antibiotics, antimicrobial peptides and host directed therapies that could enhance the ability of the immune system to eradicate B. mallei infections. Kindly click on the link below to get more information concerning our therapy development services.
Our Services
Strong dedication to innovative vaccine and therapy solutions is being observed in our company for fighting against glanders disease. By collaborating with microbiologists, immunologists and formulation scientists, our experts are studying novel methods and targeting strategies to develop therapeutics for this rare and critical infectious disease.
Infectious Disease Models
- Mouse Models: Intraperitoneal inoculation with either a sublethal or a lethal dose of Burkholderia mallei
- Equine Models: Intratracheal deposition of Burkholderia mallei to produce clinical glanders
Leveraging the advantages offered by combined therapies and live attenuated strains alongside subunit antigens, we are continually attempting to find the effective means for the therapeutic and long term effective for the therapeutics of glanders. Should you be interested in the services, we invite you to contact us so that we can provide you with further information and a quote for the services.
References
- Biryukov, Sergei S., et al. "Evaluation of two different vaccine platforms for immunization against melioidosis and glanders." Frontiers in Microbiology 13 (2022): 965518.
- Johnson, Monica M., and Kristy M. Ainslie. "Vaccines for the prevention of melioidosis and glanders." Current tropical medicine reports 4 (2017): 136-145.
All of our services and products are intended for preclinical research use
only and cannot be used to diagnose, treat or manage patients.
