Saturday, January 28, 2006

NVAX & Vaccine Development

Guest Blogger; Ilene

NVAX, which was a very good insider trade, didn't do better yesterday because of the following news from University of Pittsburgh. This isn't good news for nnvc.pk, and it's even worse because they are so far behind, and don't seem to have anything else in development, but nnvc.pk is in a world of its own. As far as nvax goes, the article points out that there's not going to be enough vaccine if there's a problem with bird flu spreading human to human anytime soon, so the competition from U of P doesn't seem like it should be adverse to other companies developing vaccines. Nvax worked with U of P in the past on an AIDS vaccine, though I think the program was cancelled due to "gov't inconvenience;" the work may be ongoing with other universities also receiving the gov't funding, but I haven't looked into it.
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Published online: 27 January 2006; | doi:10.1038/news060123-15
Quick vaccine gets off the starting blocks
Common cold helps grow swift protection against bird flu.
Michael Hopkin

Making a vaccine without the help of chicken eggs could give us easier protection against bird flu.

Researchers in the United States have unveiled a new, faster way to produce vaccines against a strain bird-flu virus. They claim that the technique can create a vaccine against a specific strain within 36 days. This could permit a speedy response should the virus acquire the ability to spread easily from human to human.

The team, led by Andrea Gambotto of the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has tested its method by creating a vaccine against H5N1; this strain caused the lethal outbreak in Vietnam during 2003-2005 that killed 42 people. The vaccine provides 100% protection in mice and chickens, the team reports in a paper published by the Journal of Virology1.

Gambotto now wants to proceed with human tests for the vaccine, which would be given as a nasal spray. He has asked for $2 million from the US government to fund a trial that would involve 72 patients and produce results within a year, he told news@nature.com.

Scale it up

Gambotto's team created the vaccine by recreating part of a genetic sequence that encodes a protein called haemagglutinin in the virus. They then spliced this into a modified form of the common cold virus, known as an adenovirus. The resulting package should stimulate the immune system to recognize and attack the haemagglutinin sequence in H5N1.

And this vaccine can be grown in bacteria in a culture dish, Gambotto points out. Almost all existing influenza vaccines are cultured in chicken eggs, and public-health experts have calculated that, at best, the world's capacity for egg-based production could yield about 250 million doses in a year, he says. This is far fewer than the billion or more doses that would be needed, says Gambotto.

Human tests of other H5N1 vaccines have been successful, but researchers have only seen protection from a double dose, and this would exacerbate the shortfall in production capacity (see 'Bird flu vaccine not up to scratch').

Gambotto argues that many labs around the world have the capacity to create a culture-based vaccine - possibly enough to meet the demands of a pandemic. "They should give us the chance to test it," he says.

Not enough?

David Fedson, former medical director at drug company Aventis Pasteur in Lyons, France, is less optimistic. Even using cell cultures rather than eggs, there may not be enough vaccine-production capacity to halt a pandemic in its tracks, he maintains.

Fedson predicts that it may be as much as five years before a vaccine can be produced in sufficient amount by any method.

He also worries that many people in the population are already immune to the adenovirus strain used in Gambotto's vaccine. In North America, for instance, an estimated 30% of people already have antibodies against the strain; this means they could successfully fight the vaccine before they get a chance to develop antibodies to the H5N1 protein. This would make the vaccine ineffective.

Gambotto hopes that delivering the vaccine nasally rather than as a jab could get around this. "Studies have shown that there is no pre-existing immunity in the upper airways, even if there is in the blood," he says.

Gambotto adds that his animal study suggests that the vaccine stimulates a part of the human immune system, called T cells, that previous flu vaccines do not. T cells are flexible, he says, meaning that the vaccine could still work even if the virus were to mutate. "T-cell immunity is more potent," he says. "Only a really smart virus can overcome it."

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

First of NNVC does not produce a 'Vaccine' i.e it does not make use of the human immune system. It attacks the viral particle directly.

Also a viricide is not affected by the immune system as it is transparent to the immune system because of its hydrophillic shell.
"....Nanoviricides: Also called "chemical viruses," these are chemically synthesized agents that destroy specific targets while remaining invisible in their hydrophilic shells to the host's immune system. They are the "cloak and dagger" operatives of medicine, slipping into viruses for the kill before sacrificing themselves in a tidy "post-op cleanup" that leaves no residue or side effects... "

ilene said...

Anonymous:

"First of NNVC does not produce a 'Vaccine' i.e it does not make use of the human immune system. It attacks the viral particle directly."

Yes, but with the availability of vaccines, their product won't be as needed, assuming it even works.

"Also a viricide is not affected by the immune system as it is transparent to the immune system because of its hydrophillic shell..."

No opinion on that.


"....Nanoviricides: Also called "chemical viruses," these are chemically synthesized agents that destroy specific targets while remaining invisible in their hydrophilic shells to the host's immune system. They are the "cloak and dagger" operatives of medicine, slipping into viruses for the kill before sacrificing themselves in a tidy "post-op cleanup" that leaves no residue or side effects... "

That doesn't make any sense to me.

Anonymous said...

"....Nanoviricides: Also called "chemical viruses," these are chemically synthesized agents that destroy specific targets while remaining invisible in their hydrophilic shells to the host's immune system. They are the "cloak and dagger" operatives of medicine, slipping into viruses for the kill before sacrificing themselves in a tidy "post-op cleanup" that leaves no residue or side effects... "

That doesn't make any sense to me.

Q: Why does it not make sense? Ignore the Cloak & dagger description!

Anonymous said...

"..Yes, but with the availability of vaccines, their product won't be as needed, assuming it even works..."

Q:So far Vaccines have not worked!! What makes you think this new vaccine will work?

Q:Can one take multiple vaccines, one for Bird Flu & another for ordinary Flu at the same time?

ilene said...

Hi Anonymous


Q: Why does it not make sense? Ignore the Cloak & dagger description!

It's hard, but I'll try:


"....Nanoviricides: Also called "chemical viruses," these are chemically synthesized agents that destroy specific targets while remaining invisible in their hydrophilic shells to the host's immune system."

I think of a virus as something made of RNA or DNA (with protein coat) that gets into a cell and replicates itself inside the cell. A nanoviricide being a "chemical virus" isn't clear. My latest understanding is that they are taking the nanoviricides and attaching something on the outside that the viruses will be attracted to, so the viruses would bind to the nanoviricides. This would presumably occur outside of the cells. Unless they are saying the nanoviricides with protein attached to bind the viruses are going to get into the infected cells and bind to some of the viruses in there. I still don't see that as a winning strategy for killing all the viruses, and obviously cells are going to be killed in the process too.


"slipping into viruses for the kill before sacrificing themselves in a tidy "post-op cleanup" that leaves no residue or side effects... "

"Slipping into viruses" doesn't make sense.

A "tidy post-op cleanup" doesn't make sense. Clean up by what? Didn't you say they say the immune system doesn't recognize the nanoviricides covered with the substance that is going to bind to the viruses and make them disappear?


Q:So far Vaccines have not worked!! What makes you think this new vaccine will work?


What do you mean? I'm not aware of any bird flu virus vaccine clinical failures, and thought these studies were just beginning - even before we know the identify of a strain of a potential bird flu virus that becomes transmissible between humans. The exact virus that the ordinary flu vaccines are made against change every year, so the vaccines need to be changed too.



Q:Can one take multiple vaccines, one for Bird Flu & another for ordinary Flu at the same time?

Why not?

donpatent said...

I have heard it explained - by John Rossi, I think - that a nanoviricide virus killer is using the virus functions and abilities in the nanoviricide itself - like an artificial virus - to attack the real viruses and that it is quite a brilliant achievement.

Also Diwan is on the record, somewhere, as saying that once the nanoviricide is established and proven effective, a vaccine development itself would follow on without much difficulty.

Anonymous said...

By Chemical virus they mean the viricide that has been programmed (by virtue of the Ligands) to target the Virus (similar to a Virus that is naturally programmed to target a host cell)!

Here is what they are claiming....
"...Nanoviricides thus act by completely novel and distinctly different mechanisms compared to most existing anti-viral agents. The self- assembling nanoviricide "trojan horses" course through the blood stream, seek their target, i.e. a specific virus particle, attach themselves to the virus particle target, fuse with the virus particle, thereby destroying the virus particle's ability to infect host cells, and go further to deploy active ingredients into the virus particle that can be chosen so as to destroy the virus genetic material (such as viral DNA, viral RNA, etc.), as well as to destroy key viral components that the virus carries inside its "belly" such as the reverse transcriptase, the protease, and the integrase carried by HIV particles). We believe this gives us an edge in the field of anti-viral therapy ...."

But time will tell! I believe they are getting ready to publish a paper. Not enough formal information has been published.

The science is not new! It has been established and the delivery mechanism is in fact being deployed by more than one company albeit comprised of different materials!

Q: Are you into day trading 100% of the time or are you practising Pathology too??

curt504 said...

Thanks Alan for your posts on useful and important investing subjects. I'm long nnvc, nvax, crxl and have belief that all three and many others will fair excellently, but I may miss some DD or news. If you come to believe that any of nvax or nnvc are at risk please post to your blog your findings or belief that the risk reward has changed?

Thanks and good fortunes, curt

Anonymous said...

"The science is not new! It has been established and the delivery mechanism is in fact being deployed by more than one company albeit comprised of different materials!"

I have to say that the above is yet to be proven in human trials but there are companies ( >1 ) trying to prove the efficacy of the technology in humans!

ilene said...

Donpatent:

"I have heard it explained - by John Rossi, I think - that a nanoviricide virus killer is using the virus functions and abilities in the nanoviricide itself - like an artificial virus - to attack the real viruses and that it is quite a brilliant achievement."


That may sound good, but it doesn't really explain much.


"Also Diwan is on the record, somewhere, as saying that once the nanoviricide is established and proven effective, a vaccine development itself would follow on without much difficulty."



It seems to me that this is a huge underestimation of what's involved.


How is it that you became involved with this company/stock?




Anonymous:

"By Chemical virus they mean the viricide that has been programmed (by virtue of the Ligands) to target the Virus (similar to a Virus that is naturally programmed to target a host cell)!

Here is what they are claiming....
"...Nanoviricides thus act by completely novel and distinctly different mechanisms compared to most existing anti-viral agents. The self- assembling nanoviricide "trojan horses" course through the blood stream, seek their target, i.e. a specific virus particle, attach themselves to the virus particle target, fuse with the virus particle, thereby destroying the virus particle's ability to infect host cells, and go further to deploy active ingredients into the virus particle that can be chosen so as to destroy the virus genetic material (such as viral DNA, viral RNA, etc.), as well as to destroy key viral components that the virus carries inside its "belly" such as the reverse transcriptase, the protease, and the integrase carried by HIV particles)."

This seems like a lot of stuff is being contained in the nanoviricides. It doesn't really address the problem that the viruses in the blood are a small fraction of the viruses in the body, the vast majority are within the cells.



"But time will tell! I believe they are getting ready to publish a paper. Not enough formal information has been published."

Yes, oh, and yes.

"The science is not new! It has been established and the delivery mechanism is in fact being deployed by more than one company albeit comprised of different materials!"


Take a look at the subsidiaries of ARWR.

Q: Are you into day trading 100% of the time or are you practising Pathology too??

I've never practiced pathology (requires an md), just did research for several years. Currently, I'm only trading, and very much enjoying it.






"The science is not new! It has been established and the delivery mechanism is in fact being deployed by more than one company albeit comprised of different materials!"


The strategies other companies may be using are also different, one of the subsidiaries of ARWR has something that sounds very similar to nanoviricides, but their explanations and proposed applications make much more sense. There's a lot to understand from the details.

"I have to say that the above is yet to be proven in human trials but there are companies ( >1 ) trying to prove the efficacy of the technology in humans!"

Why has it not been proven? What are the other companies doing and what is different about those other companies? What other companies are you referring to?


Thanks