Vaccines and Neglected Tropical Diseases: a complicated challenge or a postpandemic hope

Abstract

The progress of low and middle income countries is absolutely dependent on the high impact of twenty forgotten or neglected entities caused by a wide range of etiological agents. Although there are available treatments against many of them, reinfections and drug resistance hamper their control. Until now, only commercial vaccines are effective to manage for Dengue virus and rabies. Some reasons are the low efficacy of conventional vaccines, the long lasting development and the lack of industrial involvement. Moreover, the biological and structural complexity and immunomodulatory arsenal of the neglected parasitic diseases make this an important prophylactic challenge. SARS-CoV-2 pandemic showed the real potential of mRNA vaccine technology. The flexibility of the platform associated with the new and innovative technological immunoinformatic approaches offer a new hope to face many of the sanitary problems related to poverty population for the near future. Keywords: neglected tropical diseases; parasitic zoonoses; poverty; vaccines; mRNA