Wistar Wins Patent For 'Universal' Flu Vaccine Tech, Seeks Development Partner

Main Category: Flu / Cold / SARS
Also Included In: Immune System / Vaccines;  Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses
Article Date: 27 May 2009 - 3:00 PDT

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Philadelphia's Wistar Institute has been issued U.S. patent No. 7,527,798 for a synthetic vaccine technology with the potential to be developed into a universal flu vaccine that could eliminate annual flu shots and protect against pandemics. Wistar is seeking a corporate partner to license and develop the vaccine, which has been tested in animals and currently is in prototype form. The patent pertains to technology developed by Walter Gerhard, professor emeritus and former professor of immunology at Wistar, and Laszlo Otvos, formerly an associate professor of immunology at Wistar. The vaccine prototype contains an engineered peptide that mimics a viral coat protein called M2 that remains largely constant from year to year.

In contrast, current flu vaccines trigger an immune response to a pair of viral-coat proteins known as hemagglutinin and neuraminidase, which mutate constantly and are the reason the flu vaccine must be changed every year to target the appropriate subtypes.

Wistar believes that a vaccine targeting M2 has the potential to protect against all strains of the influenza A virus, including the H1N1 swine flu subtype. Other academic laboratories and companies have been developing vaccines that target the M2 protein. But development of a universal vaccine has been slow because humans do not mount a strong immune response against M2. "What we've done is taken the M2 and stimulated the body to make something like M2, and linked it to some peptide that will then take this molecule and present it to the right immune cells for a good stimulus," explains Meryl Melnikoff, director of business development for Wistar.

"The unique thing is we've modified the antigen in such a way to create a good immune response in mice." In preclinical studies Gerhard and Otvos administered the experimental vaccine intranasally to mice. After vaccination, the scientists noted a steep rise in M2-specific antibodies in blood samples, and the mice exhibited protection against influenza virus infection of the respiratory tract. The findings were published in 2003 in Vaccine, and the patent is based on the research behind that paper. Wistar is now seeking a partner to license the vaccine technology "or do some collaborative research with us," Melnikoff says, because as a basic research institute, Wistar is ill-equipped to conduct human testing.

Source
Genomeweb

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