What to Know
- 11,000 to 13,000 cases of invasive group A strep disease occur each year in the US per the CDC
- Each year between 1,100 and 1,600 people die due to invasive group A strep disease.
- Group A strep can cause Rheumatic Fever and Scarlet Fever among other diseases.
Scientists at the UC San Diego School of Medicine will work with a Northern California biopharmaceutical company to develop a universal vaccine to battle strep throat.
There is no current vaccine for Group A Streptococcus (GAS), the bacteria that causes pharyngitis or strep throat.
CARB-X, a funder of antibacterial development research, has awarded SutroVax, Inc. with up to $15 million to work on developing a vaccine. SutroVax, Inc. is located in Foster City south of San Francisco, California.
The vaccine will be based on research published 5 years ago by Victor Nizet, MD, professor of pediatrics and pharmacy at UC San Diego School of Medicine, Nina van Sorge, PharmD, PhD, a former post-doctoral fellow in Nizet's lab and now associate professor at Utrecht University Medical Center in the Netherlands, and colleagues, according to a written news release from UC San Diego.
Their research identified genes encoding a molecule and shows how strep bacteria resists the immune system. The discovery led to a new strategy for a vaccine to prevent strep throat.
Strep throat is common among children, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention saying up to 3 in 10 children with a sore throat have strep throat.
Local
Because strep throat can easily spread to other people, it impacts a child's ability to attend school.
“Developing a broadly effective and safe strep vaccine could prevent this suffering and reduce lost time and productivity at school and work, estimated to cost $2 billion annually,” Nizet said in 2014 when the research was made public.
