New vaccine against Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) almost ready for human trials

A South Australian research team has developed a new vaccine against Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) which is almost ready for human trials.

South Australian researcher Professor Nikolai Petrovsky’s Vaxine team has developed a new vaccine against Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) which he says will be ready for human trials within months.

It comes as SA Health issues an alert about viruses carried by mosquitoes.

Animal tests shows the Vaxine product vaccine also protects against Murray Valley encephalitis and kunjin, a variant of West Nile virus, which Prof Petrovsky warns may become growing threats “due to climate change”.

Professor Nikolai Petrovsky. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

Prof Petrovsky’s vaccine against Covid has now been given to more than eight million people in Iran where his company has partnered with a local company — he was recently given an award noting his vaccine has saved tens of thousands of lives.

Prof Petrovsky was working on vaccines for coronaviruses for the past two decades, well before Covid emerged as a pandemic, helping be United States funding for animal trials.

His company was funded by the United Stares officials to develop the JEV virus and while this halted when the pandemic hit, his Vaxine team continued to develop their vaccine to the point it is now ready for human trials.

“We are now applying to ethics committees and hope the first human trials will be in a few months,” he said.

“There are existing vaccines available but this improved one is against a range of viruses in the JEV family.”

Prof Petrovsky said he feared some research brealkthroughs are not translated to practical use, noting his working with coronaviruses started long before anyone head heard of Covid-19.

“Funding tends to go to what's hot and sexy,” he said, adding that research which is “not sexy” can also suddenly become important.

Without outside funding, Prof Petrovsky said his company will fund their own trials of the

“We’ve saved about 100,000 lives in Iran with our Covid vaccine, with none of the clotting issues of other vaccines,” he said.

Originally published as New vaccine against Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) almost ready for human trials