Injection that could prevent Lyme disease undergoing clinical trials
The Lyme PrEP shot is not a vaccine, but could stop humans from contracting Lyme disease
By: Tim Studebaker
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BOSTON, MASS. (WLNE) – Researchers at UMass Medical School have developed a PrEP shot that could prevent Lyme disease in humans.
Doctor Mark Klempner is the Executive Vice Chancellor for MassBiologics and Professor of Medicine at UMass Medical School. Klempner says, “The problem has grown over the years. The area of where you’re at risk has grown. And, I think public concern has grown.”
The disease is caused by bacteria that are transferred to people through tick bites. Southern New England is a hotspot for Lyme disease, but it’s showing up in other parts of the country too.
Klempner says, “About 180-million people in the United States now live in areas where you can catch Lyme disease.”
Klempner tells us preventative treatments haven’t been available since a vaccine was taken off the market about 20 years ago. But, this new injection isn’t a vaccine. Instead of training your body to build protection over time, it would provide immediate protection with pre-made antibodies that circulate in your blood, and would go to work once a tick bites you.
Klempner says, “It immediately goes into the tick and kills the bacteria that are sitting in the intestine of the tick, and therefore it never comes out to you.”
The shot is undergoing phase one clinical trials in Lincoln, Nebraska, because people there are unlikely to have ever encountered Lyme disease in nature.
Klempner says, “We want to do it in a population of people who don’t have any pre-formed antibodies and have never seen the bacteria.”
If all goes well, the next testing phase would begin next year. The Lyme prep shot could be available to the public by 2023 or 2024, and it would need to be given once a year at the start of tick season.
© WLNE-TV / ABC6 2021
