You are here

A NOVEL SELF-ASSEMBLING PROTEIN NANOPARTICLES-BASED GENITAL HERPES VACCINE

Award Information
Agency: Department of Health and Human Services
Branch: National Institutes of Health
Contract: 1R41AI138764-01
Agency Tracking Number: R41AI138764
Amount: $235,980.00
Phase: Phase I
Program: STTR
Solicitation Topic Code: NIAID
Solicitation Number: PA17-303
Timeline
Solicitation Year: 2017
Award Year: 2018
Award Start Date (Proposal Award Date): 2018-04-01
Award End Date (Contract End Date): 2019-03-31
Small Business Information
7625 HEATHERLY LN
San Diego, CA 92130-5602
United States
DUNS: 080437688
HUBZone Owned: No
Woman Owned: No
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No
Principal Investigator
 LBACHIR BENMOHAMED
 (949) 824-8937
 lbenmoha@uci.edu
Business Contact
 MOHAMMED BOUZIANE
Phone: (858) 900-5059
Email: mbouziane@hotmail.com
Research Institution
 YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION
 
2400 BANCROFT WAY
BERKELEY, CA 94704-1609
United States

 Domestic Nonprofit Research Organization
Abstract

ABSTRACTA staggering number of overbillion individuals worldwide are currently infected with herpes simplex
virus typeand or typeHSVandampHSVwhich cause genital herpesMost HSV seropositive individuals
are asymptomaticASYMPand never have any recurrent herpetic diseaseIn contrasta small proportion is
symptomaticSYMPwith frequentoften lifelong bouts of recurrent herpetic diseasea result of reactivation
of latent HSV from sensory neurons of the dorsal root gangliaDRGOur long term goal is to develop a
vaccine to protect against genital herpesThe most recent vaccine clinical trials that used a recombinant HSVglycoprotein DgDbased subunit antigen vaccine mixed with monophosphoryl lipid AMPLAAdjuvant
and delivered intramuscularlyThis gDantigen delivery system failed to protect despite inducing strong HSVspecific neutralizing antibodiesThis emphasizes two major gaps in knowledgeThe need to design an
alternative antigen delivery system that will induce cell mediated immune responsesin addition to humoral
responsesThe need to design HSV vaccines that will include T cell epitopes from HSV antigensAgsother than gDand or T cell epitopesA critical role for HSV specific sensory ganglia resident CDT cells in
aborting reactivation of latent HSV has been establishedand the involvement of vaginal mucosaVMresident CDT cells is gaining wider acceptanceOur recent published and preliminary data demonstrate
thatACDT cells fromnaturally protectedHSV seropositive ASYMP individuals mainly recognize CDT
cell epitopes from HSV tegument protein ULVPBImmunization of Bmice with Self Assembling
Protein NanoparticlesSAPNsthat incorporate an HSV CDT cell epitope together with a CDT helper
epitope and flagellin CpGadjuvants induced strong and long lasting CDT cell responses and protected
against genital herpesBuilding on the above published and preliminary datawe hypothesize that a SAPNsbased antigen delivery system and that incorporates human CDand CDT cell epitopesrecently identified
in our lab from the ULtegument proteincan boost the number and or function of protective DRG resident
CDand CDT cells and prevent or reduce genital herpesTo test this hypothesiswe proposesynergistic
Specific AimsAimTo test the hypothesis that intravaginal immunization of HLA double transgenic mice with
selfSAPNs based herpes vaccines incorporating single pairs of human CDand CDT cell epitopes
identified from HSVULVPtegument protein will induce vaginal mucosaVMand DRG resident CDand CDT cells and protect against genital herpesAimTest the hypothesis that intravaginal immunization
of HLA double transgenic mice with a SAPNs based herpes vaccine incorporating multiple human ULCDand CDT cell epitopes instring of pearlswill induce vaginal mucosaVMand DRG resident CDand
CDT cells and protect against genital herpesSuccessful completion of the proposed work should help build
a strong foundation toward developing an effective SAPNs based genital herpes vaccine PROJECT NARRATIVE
Genital herpes diseasecaused by HSVand HSVinfectionsis a major global health problemThis
proposal will pre clinically test a novel Self Assembling Protein NanoparticlesSAPNsbased genital herpes
vaccinethat incorporate recently identified human CDand CDT cell epitopes from the HSV ULtegument proteininhumanizedHLA Tg mouse model of genital herpesResults from this pre clinical study
will pave the way toward developing a novel SAPNs based genital herpes vaccine for clinical application

* Information listed above is at the time of submission. *

US Flag An Official Website of the United States Government