Discovery Digest

First to five. Pfizer has approved the first and only pentavalent meningococcal vaccine in the US for preventing the five most common serogroups causing meningococcal disease (1). Penbraya has been approved for use in adolescents and young adults (aged 10–25 years), and provides the broadest coverage of any meningococcal vaccine available in the country.

Sweet escape. Researchers have developed a deep learning framework – named “EVEscape” – to forecast viral escape (2). The model demonstrated high accuracy at predicting pandemic escape mutations for SARS-CoV-2, but the researchers state it can be generalized to other viruses such as influenza and HIV, and to viruses with pandemic potential that have been largely overlooked in research, such as Lassa and Nipah virus.

Throwing caution to the wind. Research into dangerous pathogens is becoming more commonplace as scientists try to prepare against potential future pandemics – but at what risk? In his recent editorial in Science, Piers Millett warns that an increase in maximum containment labs researching high-risk pathogens has not been met with sufficient increase in safety and security (3).

Changing routes. Tuberculosis is the leading cause of HIV-associated opportunistic infection and often leads to death. The Bacille Calmette–Guérin (BCG) TB vaccine is administered intradermally, but is contraindicated in people who are immunosuppressed. What about intravenous administration? In a recent study, researchers investigated whether the alternative route could protect simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)-infected macaques – demonstrating that intravenous BCG vaccination elicits robust protection against tuberculosis infection in these animals (4).