In the late 1980s, in an emergency room in his home country of India, Abhay Satoskar, MD, PhD, encountered a mysterious disease that would become the focus of his life’s work.
Satoskar was a surgical intern, just beginning his medical career, when he tried to save the life of a young boy whose spleen was grossly enlarged and as fragile as tissue paper. The organ ruptured and bled out. “Nothing could be done,” recalled Satoskar. “It was a very sad thing.”
Satoskar, professor and vice chair of research for The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center’s Department of Pathology, now knows that the little boy suffered from the visceral form of Leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease transmitted by sand flies to mammals. Leishmaniasis is the world’s second-deadliest parasitic disease after malaria, causing about 400,000 deaths each year.
Twelve million people worldwide are infected with some form of Leishmaniasis, many of them children who are among the most vulnerable to the parasitic infection. Historically, the disease has been found in tropical climates with concentrations in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and South America. In recent years, it has spread to the United States with Texas reporting cases.
The parasites that cause the disease have been resistant to drug treatment. With globalization and climate change, Satoskar warns, 12 percent of the world’s population is at risk. For the past 30 years, he has devoted his career to developing a vaccine to stop Leishmaniasis. As the disease teeters near global expansion, he might be closer to achieving that goal than any scientist in the world.
“Foundations need to see the potential human vaccine as a viable product or they are not willing to invest the kind of money that will take this to the next step,” said Satoskar. “We are very grateful to receive investment from prestigious international foundations that will allow us to move our work to the next step.”
Recent awards provided funding for canine trials in Tunisia to test the efficacy of the vaccine on dogs, which also carry the disease and are a reservoir of Leishmania parasites that cause potentially fatal visceral disease. Funds have also supported the cost to manufacture the vaccine for the first phase of a human clinical trial.
“The dogs in our canine trials have had the immune response we expected,” said Satoskar. “So I believe we have a good shot at a human prophylactic vaccine as well as a vaccine for dogs to reduce their risk as carriers.”
