A consortium of six international scientists have come a step closer to finding a common vaccine for HIV, tuberculosis, malaria and sleeping sickness, according to Dr. Bert Fraser-Reid, the founder president and Director of the Natural Products and Glycotechnology Research Institute, Inc, (NPG), North Carolina, USA. Dr. Fraser Reid is one among the consortium member which comprises one scientist each from Japan (Microbiology), Australia (immunology), Germany (Parasitology), Britain and Switzerland (biochemistry). According to Dr. Fraser-Reid, a trial vaccine to prevent these diseases has been tested successfully on mice.

Funded by the prestigious Human Sciences Frontier Programme Organisation of Europe, the consortium was formed to launch an assault on malaria, with the aim of developing a complex carbohydrate-protein-based anti-malarial vaccine. The NPG focuses on the carbohydrate chemistry/biology related to third world tropical parasitic diseases, with special emphasis on developing a carbohydrate based vaccine against malaria.

“We have successfully tested the trial vaccine on mice. But though there are good results, it would however take two more decades for the vaccine to be used on humans since the process of confirming the efficacy on humans was lengthy. There have been occasions when vaccine tested fruitfully on mice were not successful on apes,” Dr. Fraser-Reid maintained.

“Complex sugars being difficult to handle in a laboratory, synthesizing them has been a hazard,” Dr. Fraser –Reid maintained, claiming further,” once an organic complex is arrived at by the consortium of scientists by combing the Glycosyl Phosphatidyl Inositol (GPI) with protein in the cell, a potential vaccine could be developed to combat HIV, tuberculosis, malaria and sleeping sickness”. He further added that all the four diseases had a common sugar, oligosccharides.

It was in 1988 that Dr. Fraser –Reid discovered a novel procedure that facilitated the preparation of a complex carbohydrate GPI which led to a nomination for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. This discovery enabled him to accomplish in 1995 the first laboratory synthesis of a class of compounds known to be associated with illness ranging from yeast infection to HIV to diabetes.