NEWARK, Del.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Uvax Bio, LLC, a privately held, preclinical-stage vaccine company, today announced that the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) has selected the glycan trimming technology used by Prof. Jiang Zhu of Scripps Research, Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Uvax Bio in his innovative design of HIV-1 vaccines to improve immune recognition as one of the Top Ten Emerging Technologies in Chemistry for 2023. The IUPAC described this technology as “low-sugar vaccinations.”
The challenge of the glycan “sugar” covering the HIV virus
Glycans are long, branched sugar molecules that are commonly attached to viral surface proteins. In the case of the native HIV virus protein, the glycans are so thick that they form a dense glycan shield that prevents the immune system from recognizing the protein structures underneath, like hair covering your face. But the glycan coating can also contribute to the immune response. Prof. Zhu and his team spent years testing different glycan modifications, trying to find the sweet spot that would uncover the virus’ protein “face” without losing the beneficial glycan functions. Finally, Zhu decided to remove most (but not all) of the glycan shield through an enzymatic process.
“Glycan trimming turned out to be a crucial piece to the puzzle, exposing important broadly neutralizing binding sites (bNAbs) on the virus while retaining the other binding to bNAbs that need glycans in their interactions,” said Jiang Zhu, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology at Scripps Research, “More importantly, glycan-trimmed trimers on the 1c-SApNP®s were much more effective at generating tier 2 virus (isolated from patients) neutralizing antibody responses in mice and rat models.”
Glycan Trimming Enhances Response Rate and Potency of HIV-1 Vaccine Candidate
The benefits of adding glycan trimming to the Uvax Bio 1c SApNP® HIV-1 protein nanoparticle vaccine design have been demonstrated in multiple preclinical studies. Recently, Uvax Bio completed a preclinical immunogenicity study in rats where the high dose, adjuvanted, glycan-trimmed regimen resulted in the highest potency of autologous Tier 2 BG505 HIV-1 neutralization (ID50>1850) with a vaccine response frequency of 100%.
Uvax Bio Ready to Advance its HIV-1 Vaccine Program
“We congratulate Prof. Zhu and his team at Scripps Research on this recognition of their innovative work in HIV vaccine design and chemistry. Innovations like glycan trimming in an HIV vaccine have enabled Uvax Bio to advance our HIV-1 vaccine program to the point of readiness for Phase 1 human trials as GMP lot manufacturing was completed earlier this year on the two vaccine candidates where the glycan-trimming technology was used successfully,” said Ji Li, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Uvax Bio.
About Uvax Bio
Uvax Bio, a spin-off vaccine company from Scripps Research, employs proprietary 1c-SApNP® platform technology invented by Dr. Jiang Zhu of Scripps Research to develop and commercialize prophylactic vaccines for challenging infectious diseases. Uvax Bio holds the exclusive worldwide rights to the 1c-SApNP® platform and an expanding portfolio of 12 patented preclinical vaccine candidates. In addition to the leading candidates in HIV, Uvax Bio is also working to advance candidates for pan-influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccines. The company’s technology enables the production of virus-like protein nanoparticles that can display 20-60 stabilized antigens targeting a wide range of viral and bacterial diseases. The vaccines are produced using a single step, universal, cell-based manufacturing process.
About HIV/AIDS
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) estimates that 38.4 million people worldwide are currently living with HIV, and 1.5 million people became newly infected with HIV in 2021 alone. According to the latest estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 34,800 new HIV infections occurred in the United States in 2019. Apart from very rare cases involving bone marrow transplants, there is no cure for the infection, which must be held in check indefinitely with antiviral drugs to keep it from progressing to the deadly immune deficiency condition known as AIDS.
About IUPAC’s Annual Top Ten Selection
The IUPAC’s mission is to “showcase the transformative value of chemistry and to inform the general public on the potential of the chemical sciences to foster societal well-being and ensure the sustainability of our planet. These technologies are defined as scientific advances in between a discovery and a fully-commercialized idea, having outstanding potential to open new opportunities in chemistry, sustainability, and beyond."
A full list of the Top Ten Emerging Technologies in Chemistry for 2023 can be found here:
https://iupac.org/iupac-2023-top-ten/
Reference:
- Zhang, et al., Single-component multilayered self-assembling protein nanoparticles presenting glycan-trimmed uncleaved prefusion optimized envelope trimers as HIV-1 vaccine candidates. Nat. Commun. 2023; 14:1985.
