Linköping University (Sweden)
Linköping University is one of the largest academic institutions in Sweden, with research teams studying illnesses caused by viruses from a global health perspective.
In 2020/2021, the Eurofins Foundation provided a grant for the Linköping University’s research on rotavirus.
Despite improved sanitation, diarrhoeal diseases remain the second-leading cause of death in children under five and are a major obstacle to improving global health. Rotavirus is the main cause of severe dehydrating diarrhoea in children and is associated with high mortality, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. It was recently established that susceptibility to rotavirus infections is associated with the expression of different sugars in the small intestine that are used as attachment factors for rotavirus. Some children are resistant to the rotavirus strains included in the vaccine formulations but can be infected with other types of rotavirus. The proportion of these strains is higher in sub-Saharan Africa.
The research group’s hypothesis is that this genetic resistance is a major cause of the low efficacy of rotavirus vaccines in sub-Saharan Africa, and its objective is to understand the mechanism behind these lower efficacy rates.
Thanks to the Eurofins Foundation’s grant, the research team set up and optimised the enteroid/organoid system for use with rotavirus vaccine strains. They have observed that enteroids with a secretor-positive phenotype are more likely to be infected with live vaccine strains, using both immunofluorescence and real-time-PCR.
This provided a mechanistical basis to explain why secretor children have been observed to have higher vaccine efficacy. Researchers are currently investigating other host markers important for vaccine efficacy with their organoid model, as well as vaccine strain evolution within Eurofins’ organoid system using NGS.
In addition to this grant, the team also uses several Eurofins technological platforms for their studies.
Results have not yet been published, but the research team believes that this information could be of great importance in evaluating the current vaccines, as well as aid decisions about future vaccine formulations that could be better suited to regions with high mortality due to rotavirus gastroenteritis.
This project contributes to the following United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal
