Nearly 700 million people contract mosquito-borne illnesses every year, and over one million people die from them.

Mosquitoes transmit disease pathogens through their saliva when they feed, and proteins present in the saliva can enhance pathogen infectivity. Animal studies show that inducing immunity against mosquito saliva proteins can actually protect against mosquito-borne disease. This is the aim of AGSv. It contains a combination of four synthetic peptides derived from Anopheles gambiae mosquito salivary proteins. These peptides are all highly species-conserved and were identified using our proprietary T-cell epitope algorithm. AGS-v has already performed well in a Phase 1 clinical trial in healthy adults. The vaccine was well tolerated and produced significant antibody and cell-mediated immunogenic responses following mosquito challenge. 

These first results demonstrate that vector-targeted vaccines are feasible and potentially therapeutically effective in humans. Because AGS-v is a vector-targeted vaccine and not specifically pathogen targeted, it has the potential to induce protection against a huge number of mosquito-transmitted diseases, including malaria, dengue, yellow fever, West Nile virus, chikungunya, Rift Valley fever, Japanese encephalitis, and Zika virus.

AGS-v is now ready for Phase 2 development. 

AGS-v Key Clinical Results:

Phase 1 safety and immuno study (Manning et al, 2020, Lancet) 

  • Randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, single centre study in 49 healthy adults
  • Well tolerated, no systemic safety concerns, and participants had no unexpected adverse events after being challenged with Aedes aegypti mosquitoes at Day 42.
  • Significant increase in vaccine-specific total IgG antibodies and cell-mediated immune response noted with adjuvant AGS-v vaccine at Day 42
  • Vaccine-specific antibodies present for at least 3 months.

Key publication

Manning et al. Safety and immunogenicity of a mosquito saliva peptide-based vaccine: a randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind, phase 1 trial. Lancet, 2020, 395:10242, 1998-2007. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31048-5.