The idea is not a new one. Dr. Carl June, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, said he has been working to develop therapeutic vaccines for 30 years.
But now, after major failures and minor victories, researchers may at last have a deep enough understanding of the immune system to make a difference, June and others said. And the Boston area is a major hub of this research.
“Right now, we’re finally at a point where at least the preliminary tools exist for us to deliver something that will start a new trend in medicine,’’ said Garo H. Armen, chief executive of Agenus Inc., a Lexington biotechnology company that is developing a therapeutic herpes vaccine.
In addition to those that attack herpes, therapeutic vaccines are currently under development for hepatitis C, chlamydia, HIV, diabetes, other autoimmune disorders, and even - at Selecta Biosciences in Watertown - a vaccine against nicotine.
(A Globe story in December addressed similar efforts to treat cancer, which is the most advanced area of therapeutic vaccine research, with dozens of treatments under development.)
For years, vaccine research was considered a sleepy backwater in the drug development world, said Chip Clark, chief executive of Genocea Biosciences, which is developing its own therapeutic vaccine against herpes.
Then, conventional vaccines to prevent pneumonia and human papilloma virus began earning big returns. A six-year-old therapeutic shingles vaccine, Zostavax, proved that vaccines can treat an existing infection. And the success of the therapeutic prostate cancer vaccine Provenge, which came on the market in 2010, has awakened interest at major pharmaceutical companies and biotech start-ups.
“The genetics and genomics revolution of the ’90s is just now hitting vaccines,’’ Clark said. “We’re catching up to the rest of the field of drug discovery.’’
For a therapeutic vaccine to work, it has to have the right target, the right ammunition, and enough power to get that ammunition to its quarry, Armen said - all without triggering dangerous side effects.
