Researchers at the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine report a major breakthrough in their development of a vaccine for the Zika virus.

Researchers say their vaccine candidate is effective in protecting both mice and monkeys from the infection, a promising indication that the vaccine could work in humans.

The next step, according to Dr. Axel Lehrer, JABSOM assistant professor of tropical medicine and infectious diseases, is human clinical trials.

More than 30 vaccine candidates are in development since outbreaks in 2015-2016 in Brazil linked the infection in some pregnant women to severe birth defects in their newborns.

Zika is spread by the bite of infected mosquitos and through sex. There is no treatment or cure, nor is any vaccine currently approved for public use.

“We are actually working with Hawaii Biotech in this together where they would possibly take this into clinic in coming years, and of course the big obstacle is always funding,” Lehrer said. “What we have shown really is that it is possible to generate this very safe vaccine that could be used also in pregnant women, which is something that is very much needed.”

The proposed vaccine reported by JABSOM scientists in the journals Frontiers in Immunology and mSphere, via the open access journal of the American Society for Microbiology, is a recombinant subunit vaccine that uses only a small protein of the Zika virus, produced in insect cells.

“We believe our vaccine candidate shows much promise particularly as it showed to require only two immunizations given three weeks apart and is a potentially safer alternative to other candidates already in clinical trials,” said Lehrer.

Click here to view the full report on Frontiers in Immunology.