Auro Vaccines’ VesiculoVax™ vectors are negative-strand, non-segmented RNA viruses that have been modified to enable the safe delivery of vaccine immunogens. VesiculoVax™ vectors are particularly effective for a number of reasons, including:
- Unlike adenovirus and other conventional viral vector vaccines, there is little pre-existing immunity in the human population.
- It is a family of vectors that allows the use of a unique vector for each vaccine application.
- They have a relatively simple genome organization that can be altered to accommodate and express more than one foreign gene.
- Multiple clinical trials have shown the prototypical vector to be safe and immunogenic in humans.
- They are replication-competent:
- Allows a highly scalable and cost-effective manufacturing process.
- The replicating vector efficiently activates the immune system via:
- Innate immune signals.
- The release of a cascade of “molecular adjuvants.”
- Used alone, VesiculoVax™ vectored vaccines lead to the rapid expansion of B cells to antibody-producing cells.
- Used as a boost after DNA priming, VesiculoVax™-vectored vaccines lead to expansion of primed T cells into effector T cells that are uniquely suited to attacking virally infected cells and cancers
- These vectors include Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) and Isfahan virus; other vectors are under development
Product Example:
First-in-class prophylactic vaccines for emerging infectious diseases of public health and biodefense importance:
VesiculoVax™ priming followed by VesiculoVax™ boosting enables the development of pre-exposure vaccines that amplify B-cell immune response for cases in which the rapid induction of neutralizing antibodies is needed to protect against viruses that cause hemorrhagic fevers, such as Ebola, Marburg, and Lassa viruses. The Auro Vaccines’ prototype VesiculoVax™ vector has demonstrated single-dose protection of monkeys against lethal challenge with Ebola and Marburg viruses in studies conducted by a team from the NIAID, CDC, FDA, and DoD. A series of immunologically distinct VesiculoVax™ vectors have been developed to the point that they have demonstrated protective efficacy in animal models of lethal disease caused by Eastern, and Venezuelan encephalitic alphaviruses, Lassa, CHIK and ZIKA viruses.