Technology that enables scientists to identify targets for the development of vaccines against viruses such as H5N1 in weeks rather than months has entered a pilot study at ProImmune, Oxford, UK
ProImmune has developed Reveal and Prove, a novel technology that enables scientists to identify the specific antigens on viruses that can be detected by the immune system and used as targets in vaccine development.
The new screening system enables researchers to analyse any protein derived from a pathogen for potential immunogenicity within only four weeks, a process that has previously taken many months to complete.
Nikolai Schwabe, CEO of ProImmune, said: "If the H5N1 virus mutates to increase its infectiousness to humans, a severe global flu pandemic could ensue.
"Presently no vaccine is available to treat H5N1 influenza but many companies are in the race to develop new vaccines.
"This new technology from ProImmune should help in ensuring a vaccine is developed rapidly as a new strain emerges.
"Reveal and Prove can revolutionise the discovery of new highly relevant targets for vaccines and other immunotherapy through a dramatic shortening of timescales and reduction of labour required in the process.
"Our pilot study could make an important contribution to the rapid development of a vaccine for avian influenza, especially given the immediacy of the medical need".
The pilot study will use Reveal and Prove technologies to explore the protein sequence of the key H5 protein in the avian influenza virus.
Results from the pilot study will be published on ProImmune's website as they emerge, enabling scientists to evaluate the benefits of a clinical collaboration with the company to confirm new avian influenza vaccine targets.
ProImmune's testing products allow the measurement of relevant immune responses in clinical patient samples, enabling researchers to rapidly prove the clinical relevance of newly identified targets as mutated viruses emerge.
The importance of developing an effective vaccine against avian influenza virus H5N1 and emerging pandemic flu strains is widely recognised.
Influenza viruses mutate rapidly and while H5N1 avian influenza usually only affects birds it can also infect humans, who have almost no natural immunity to the H5 virus strain, resulting in mortality to date of up to 50% (Communicable Disease Surveillance and Response, WHO).
Reveal and Prove technology is widely applicable across many disease areas including all areas of cancer and infectious diseases, and is ideally suited to accelerate critical biodefense research to explore the immune response against pathogens not commonly found in the population.
ProImmune is a private biotechnology company headquartered in Oxford, UK, that specialises in providing quality research reagents for monitoring the condition of the immune system.
ProImmune has a wide range of customers from leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, as well as clinical and academic research institutes throughout the world.
The company, founded in November 1999, has secured R+D funding from several DTI Smart, Eureka and EU Framework VI project grants and has been profitable since its inception.
ProImmune owns a portfolio of international patents and patent applications protecting its core products and technologies.
Reveal and Prove is a modular process for rapidly determining T cell immunogens form an arbitrary protein sequence, such as a protein occurring in a disease of interest.
Reveal is a rapid in vitro test that does not require patient samples and that can quickly distil high-likelihood immunogens from a large number of starting candidates.
Prove provides specific test reagents for conclusively validating the clinical relevance of candidate immunogens identified by Reveal.
New T cell immunogens identified with the help of Reveal and Prove technology can then be used as core building blocks for vaccine development.
