(Press-News.org) Baltimore, MD — October 8, 2025 — Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health (CVD) have completed a successful Phase 1 clinical trial of a novel vaccine designed to protect against both typhoid fever and invasive non-typhoidal Salmonella--two major causes of illness and death among children in sub-Saharan Africa.
Results were published today in the journal Nature Medicine.
The investigational Trivalent Salmonella Conjugate Vaccine (TSCV) includes sugar molecules taken from the outer coating of the Salmonella typhi bacteria that cause typhoid and the two most common types of invasive Salmonella infections that are not associated with typhoid caused by Salmonella enterica. These sugars are attached to special proteins that help the body recognize and respond to the bacteria more effectively.
In the randomized, placebo-controlled Phase 1 trial, 22 healthy adults in the US received either a low dose (6.25 µg) or high dose (12.5 µg) of TSCV, or a placebo shot. The vaccine was found to be safe and well-tolerated, with only mild, short-lived injection site pain reported. Importantly, 100 percent of the vaccine recipients developed strong immune responses to all three polysaccharide components, while none of the placebo recipients did.
“These results are highly encouraging,” said study lead investigator Wilbur Chen, MD, MS, Professor of Medicine at UM School of Medicine and Chief of the Adult Clinical Studies section within CVD. “They show that TSCV has the potential to protect children in regions where both typhoid and salmonella are endemic and deadly.”
The vaccine also has the potential to protect Americans against Salmonella infections, one of the leading causes of foodborne illness. Every year, bacteria from raw or undercooked chicken and eggs and contaminated produce cause 1.35 million Salmonella infections in the US and more than 26,000 hospitalizations, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The serotypes targeted by the TSCV vaccine are among the most common in US infections.
In fact, some study participants showed pre-existing antibody responses, suggesting prior exposure to the bacteria via foodborne illness. Such priming might have led to stronger and longer-lasting immunity in the adult study volunteers, though researchers remain optimistic about the vaccine’s effectiveness in infants and young children in endemic regions.
The vaccine triggered a strong and balanced immune response, including long-lasting antibodies—even at lower doses. It also activated a specific immune defense involving white blood cells that help clear infections, which hadn’t been seen before with one of the vaccine’s protein components. These findings suggest the vaccine could offer both gut-level and whole-body protection against Salmonella.
“These findings provide a strong foundation for future studies,” said study co-author Myron Levine, MD, DTPH, professor emeritus at UM School of Medicine and CVD founding director. “We plan to explore broader functional assays to identify correlates of protection and evaluate TSCV’s performance in young children—the population most vulnerable to these diseases.”
The vaccine was developed in collaboration with Bharat Biotech International Limited (BBIL), building on their WHO-prequalified Typbar TCV™ platform.
“In 2017, sub-Saharan Africa saw over 420,000 cases of Salmonella disease and 66,000 deaths, primarily among children,” said Mark T. Gladwin, MD, Dean of the UM School of Medicine. “Typhoid fever caused an additional 650,000 cases and nearly 9,000 deaths in the region. A single vaccine that protects against both could be a game-changer for global pediatric health.”
END
New vaccine shows promise against typhoid and invasive salmonella in first human trial
2025-10-08
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Engineered “natural killer” cells could help fight cancer
2025-10-08
CAMBRIDGE, MA -- One of the newest weapons that scientists have developed against cancer is a type of engineered immune cell known as CAR-NK (natural killer) cells. Similar to CAR-T cells, these cells can be programmed to attack cancer cells.
MIT and Harvard Medical School researchers have now come up with a new way to engineer CAR-NK cells that makes them much less likely to be rejected by the patient’s immune system, which is a common drawback of this type of treatment.
The new advance may also make it easier to develop “off-the-shelf” ...
New 3D printing method ‘grows’ ultra-strong materials
2025-10-08
Vat photopolymerization is a 3D printing technique in which a light-sensitive resin is poured into a vat, and then selectively hardened into a desired shape using a laser or UV light. But this process is mostly used only with light-sensitive polymers, which limits its range of useful applications.
While some 3D printing methods have been developed to convert these printed polymers into tougher metals and ceramics, Daryl Yee, head of the Laboratory for the Chemistry of Materials and Manufacturing in EPFL’s School of Engineering, explains that materials produced with these techniques suffer from serious structural setbacks. “These materials tend to be ...
Lizard genetics provide new perspective on evolution
2025-10-08
Some colourful lizards and a mathematical formula from the finance sector have been used to build a new framework to model evolution.
Developed by Dr Simone Blomberg from The University of Queensland’s School of the Environment, it is the first mathematical model to combine short-term natural selection (microevolution) with the way species evolve over millions of years (macroevolution).
“There has been a big debate about whether microevolution can explain all of macroevolution,” Dr Blomberg said.
“We ...
Can a Stevia-derived sweetener improve hair loss treatment?
2025-10-08
Androgenetic alopecia is a common form of hair loss in both men and women—also called male pattern baldness and female pattern hair loss. Topical minoxidil is an approved treatment, but it has poor water solubility and skin permeability. New research in Advanced Healthcare Materials reveals that stevioside, a natural sweetener derived from the Stevia plant, can improve the drug’s absorption into the skin.
In a mouse model of alopecia, a dissolving patch formulation of stevioside with minoxidil effectively promoted hair follicles to enter the growth phase, leading to new hair development.
“Using stevioside to enhance minoxidil delivery represents ...
Method to assess the status of wild reindeer may help with conservation efforts
2025-10-08
Reindeer are iconic in the Arctic and subarctic, but their numbers are declining. As described in research published in Wildlife Monographs, investigators developed an environmental quality standard, or norm, for reindeer populations to evaluate their overall status, and gave them simple status categories of poor, medium, and good.
The standard has indices for the status of population performance, lichen resources, and human-related habitat loss and fragmentation. The scientists implemented their environmental quality standard for 10 national and 14 smaller wild reindeer areas in Norway. They found that only 1 population had a good status; 11 populations ...
Do imported cut flowers spread livestock viruses?
2025-10-08
A study in Medical and Veterinary Entomology investigated whether Culicoides biting midges—tiny insects that can carry serious livestock viruses—are being accidentally exported from Africa to Europe in shipments of cut flowers.
Although researchers did detect small numbers of these insects near and inside greenhouses on a Kenyan flower farm, they found none in packaging or transport areas. This suggests that the risk of midges being shipped with flowers is very low, but not zero.
Given that northern Europe has experienced several unexpected outbreaks of livestock diseases spread by midges in recent years, the findings highlight the need ...
Does prior incarceration contribute to poor health later in life?
2025-10-08
A recent analysis reveals that older adults with prior incarceration report worse physical and mental health than their peers, even if they were incarcerated in the distant past. The findings are published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
Among the 1,318 US adults aged 50 years and older who responded to the Family History of Incarceration Survey, 21% had been incarcerated. Formerly incarcerated older adults were more likely to be men, non-Hispanic Black or “other” race/ethnicity, ...
Could slime mold microbes be a source of potent antimicrobials?
2025-10-08
The cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum is a soil microbe that produces diverse natural products with potential antibiotic activity. Previously, three chlorinated compounds had been detected in Dictyostelium, but only the most abundant compound (CDF-1) was identified and shown to be almost as effective an antimicrobial as ampicillin. In research published in FEBS Open Bio, investigators optimized lab culture conditions of Dictyostelium cells to boost the levels of low-abundance chlorinated compounds and to characterize their antimicrobial properties.
The optimized culture conditions took advantage of propionic acid and zinc supplementation to increase the ...
Record-breaking 2024 Amazon fires drive unprecedented carbon emissions and ecosystem degradation
2025-10-08
A new study by researchers at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre reveals that the Amazon rainforest has just undergone its most devastating forest fire season in over two decades, which triggered record-breaking carbon emissions and exposed the region’s growing ecological fragility despite a slowing trend in deforestation. The 2024 fires released an estimated 791 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which roughly equates to the annual emissions of Germany. This marks a sevenfold increase ...
Birds thrive despite pollution from ‘forever’ chemicals
2025-10-08
A new paper in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, published by Oxford University Press, indicates high levels of exposure to “forever” chemicals in the environments of many tree swallow bird groups in the United States. Despite this, chemical exposure did not seem to affect the reproductive health of the birds.
Manufactured materials made of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, often referred to as “forever chemicals,” are a worldwide environmental contaminant. These chemicals come into ecosystems through manufacturing plant discharges or areas where ...