Yellow Fever

The illness known as yellow fever is one of the most dangerous and fatal diseases that can be contracted. This disease is caused by the virus yellow fever, which is augmented by mosquitoes. Our company is dedicated to advancing yellow fever therapeutics and prevention through a comprehensive suite of services.

Overview of Yellow Fever

The yellow fever virus can cause an ailment that may be infectious in nature. Its victims may experience a fever and suffer from jaundice. This virus belongs to the family Flavivirus. The primary vectors that transmit the yellow fever viruses are species of mosquitoes such as Aedes and Haemagogus residing in tropical Africa and South America. There are two stages this ailment occurs in. The first one is the acute stage, where patients experience loss of appetite, winter shivers, muscle aches, and an uncontrollable rise in temperature. The second stage is toxic which results in liver damage, yellow discolouration of skin and eyes, and blood coming out of the mouth. The mortality rate of the afflicted population varies from five to fifty percent and depends on the region where the disease has spread.

Fig.1 Schematic representation of the yellow fever virus (YFV) genome. (Hansen C. A., et al., 2021)

Even with the availability of effective vaccines, yellow fever persists as endemic in 44 countries and causes an estimated 109,000 severe cases of infections and 51,000 deaths every year. Given the non-observed re-emergence of yellow fever in areas previously considered non-endemic alongside climate change and urbanization, the infrastructure for disease surveillance, vaccination, and outbreak possible prevention is of utmost importance.

Vaccine Development for Yellow Fever

For the past few decades, the use of live-attenuated yellow fever vaccines, such as the 17D, has made a major impact on the prevention of yellow fever. These vaccines are potent and long-lasting, but their aggressive nature is non-scalable for various populations such as elderly and immunocompromised individuals, leading to major safety concerns.

As a result, there is a focus on constructing inactivated vaccines instead. Candidates such as XRX-001 serve as a prime example as they are produced through the purification and inactivation of yellow fever virus YFV, serving as a safer alternative with the same level of effectiveness shown in human trials.

Table 1 Yellow fever vaccine candidates in development. (Hansen C. A., et al., 2021)

Therapeutics Development for Yellow Fever

• Symptomatic Therapeutics
  Since there are no specific antiviral drugs available for yellow fever, therapeutic is largely symptomatic and supportive. This involves rehydration, relief of pain, and other specific complication management. For instance, while paracetamol (acetaminophen) is used for pain and fever alleviation, aspirin and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are contraindicated due to excessive bleeding.
• Antiviral Research
  Sofosbuvir is presently being tested across clinical and laboratory settings for its prospective effectiveness at treating Yellow Fever Virus (YFV), alongside the ongoing hunt for effective antivirals for yellow fever. Drugs like these, aimed at treating Hepatitis C, are still being studied.

Therapeutic Development

Preclinical Research

Pathogen and Host Research

Disease Model Development

Our Services

We specialize in developing new-generation vaccines against yellow fever and this includes using different technologies such as live-attenuated vaccines, inactivated vaccines, nucleic acid vaccines, and virus-like particles (VLPs). We further aim to improve vaccine access, scale-up capacity, and safety in design and development as part of R & D work.

Moreover, those activities in therapeutics development focus on the discovery and design of new antiviral drugs based on carefully selected targets. This includes systematic screening of compounds from large libraries of chemicals using high-throughput techniques to select the best candidates, followed by in vitro and in vivo testing to determine their safety and effectiveness.

Our company is at the forefront of yellow fever vaccine and therapeutic development and is committed to delivering innovative solutions for this deadly disease. If you are interested in our services, please feel free to contact us.

All of our services and products are intended for preclinical research use only and cannot be used to diagnose, treat or manage patients.