Infectious Disease Therapeutics: Focus on Progress and Potential

Infectious Disease Therapeutics Targeting Emerging Pathogens

While significant advances have been made in treating previously known infectious diseases, emerging pathogens continue to pose new challenges. In recent years, we have seen the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, as well as increasing antibiotic resistance in bacteria like Candida auris. Developing effective therapeutics for newly discovered diseases requires significant research efforts to understand the pathogens and identify potential vulnerabilities that can be targeted. Promising areas of focus include rational drug design based on genomic analysis of pathogens and host-pathogen interactions. Another approach is developing broad-spectrum antivirals, antibiotics, or other drugs that can potentially work against multiple related pathogens.

Novel Mechanisms of Action

Beyond traditional small molecule antibiotics and antivirals, researchers are exploring therapeutic strategies with novel mechanisms of action. These include bacteriophages that can selectively target specific bacteria without harming beneficial microbiota. Advances in immunotherapies aim to either boost the innate immune response against pathogens or engineer virus-specific T cells and antibodies. Gene editing technologies also show potential for precision therapies against infectious diseases. For example, CRISPR-Cas9 could enable editing of viral genomes or correction of genetic mutations rendering pathogens drug-resistant. RNA interference is another approach under investigation for silencing gene expression of pathogens.

Infectious Disease Therapeutic: Advancing Vaccine Technologies

Vaccines remain one of the most effective tools for preventing infectious diseases. However, vaccine development historically faced major challenges in scale and efficiency. Emerging technologies now aim to accelerate and enhance vaccine candidates. Areas of progress include nucleic acid, mRNA, and viral vectored vaccines with potential for faster, more flexible development compared to traditional approaches. Self-amplifying mRNA vaccines in particular show promise for long-lasting immunity with a single dose. Other strategies seek to develop multivalent or even universal vaccines targeting conserved antigens shared across related pathogen strains or species. Combination vaccines could help address both compliance and cost barriers to broader immunization coverage globally.

Overcoming Dissemination Barriers

While therapeutics may be developed targeting priority pathogens, ensuring accessibility and appropriate usage worldwide presents its own challenges. Factors like high costs, supply chain difficulties in remote areas, lack of adequate healthcare infrastructure and medical personnel, and emergence of resistance often hinder dissemination of new treatments. Collaborations between pharmaceutical companies, non-profits, and international organizations aim to facilitate technology transfer and equitable global distribution. Alternative approaches exploring heat stability, simplified dosing, and engineered self-administration could also help widen the reach and durable effectiveness of infectious disease interventions. Overall, overcoming dissemination barriers will be critical to realizing the full public health impact of new therapeutic advances.

Partnerships for Progress

Given the complex, multi-sector nature of developing and deploying innovative solutions at scale, forging partnerships across industry, government, non-profits and academia has become increasingly important. Such collaborations can combine complementary expertise, resources, and perspectives for progress against infectious diseases. Product development partnerships explicitly focus on neglected diseases while public-private arrangements accelerate approvals. Further linking basic research to prototyping and field application through integrated consortia helps bridge gaps between discovery and delivery. Sustained investment and commitment over the long run will be key to leveraging partnerships for consistent improvements in infectious disease therapeutic outcomes worldwide.