Date: 2016-03-22
Type of information: Publication of results in a medical journal
phase: preclinical
Announcement: publication of results in The Journal of Infectious Diseases
Company: Inovio Pharmaceuticals (USA - PA)
Product: CHIKV-dMAb
Action
mechanism: monoclonal antibody.
Disease: chikungunya virus infection
Therapeutic area: Infectious diseases
Country:
Trial details:
Latest
news: * On March 22, 2016, Inovio Pharmaceuticals announced that its novel dMAb antibody and DNA vaccine targeting the chikungunya virus (CHIKV) provided 100% protection against a lethal virus challenge in mice. This data was published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases in an article, “Rapid and long-term immunity elicited by DNA encoded antibody prophylaxis and DNA vaccination against Chikungunya virus,” prepared by Inovio authors and their academic collaborators. While conventional vaccine and marketed monoclonal antibody technologies have shown limited ability to provide an effective solution to CHIKV to date, Inovio’s DNA vaccine and dMAb products show potential, separately and in combination, to offer immediate and long term protection to large populations from CHIKV infection. One intramuscular injection of the CHIKV-dMAb produced antibodies in vivo more rapidly than active vaccination with a CHIKV-DNA vaccine. This dMAb neutralized diverse CHIKV clinical isolates and protected mice from viral challenge. Combinations of both afford rapid as well as long-lived protection.
Inovio previously published that its SynCon® DNA vaccine for CHIKV provided durable 100% protection in mice. In this study, a single intramuscular injection of a DNA plasmid encoding a monoclonal antibody targeting CHIKV protected mice from a lethal dose of the virus. The protection expressed by these dMAb antibodies was very rapid, with 100% survival in mice challenged with lethal enhanced CHIKV disease as early as two days after dMAb product administration. In comparison, vaccine-driven protection can take weeks to months to reach peak efficacy levels, but providing better long term protection compared to a dMAb product. Inovio’s study demonstrates that its CHIKV dMAb antibody and DNA vaccine could be used as an ideal combination to provide both rapid short-term as well as long-term protection.
