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The Nipah virus is a pathogen causing encephalitis and acute respiratory distress in humans, with recent outbreaks in Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore, and a fatality rate over 50%. The natural hosts of the virus are large fruit bats present across South Asia. Last month the Indian state of Kerala reported the death of a 14-year-old boy from a Nipah virus infection. To date, no approved vaccine or therapeutic exists against the Nipah virus.
Phylex has published a preprint of a research article on immunogenicity of its Nipah mRNA nanoparticle vaccine candidate in mice co-authored with scientists of the CDC (https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.05.606671v1). The vaccine elicited a robust neutralizing antibody response, with neutralizing titers markedly higher than with several other Nipah vaccine designs, and efficient neutralizing even with a single dose.
The Phylex mRNA vaccine encodes for a nanoparticle displaying 60 copies of the antigen based upon the head domain of the G protein of the Nipah virus. In virus neutralization assays, neutralization titers of Phylex vaccine-elicited sera against Nipah virus were 3-fold the average titers of 14 individuals in Bangladesh who survived a Nipah virus infection.
“We are grateful to our co-authors at the CDC for their contribution in assessing our vaccine against this difficult pathogen,” said Pascal Brandys, co-founder and CEO of Phylex Biosciences. “The results confirm the strong advantage of our mRNA vaccine encoding for a highly immunogenic nanoparticle, as compared with a variety of other technologies.”
“Our vaccine combines the advantages of mRNA for speed of manufacturing and development and a nanoparticle for efficacy after one dose,” Brandys continued. “We will aggressively pursue the clinical development of our vaccine candidate to initiate clinical trials with exposed individuals on a compassionate basis and save lives as soon as possible.”
About Phylex BioSciences
Founded at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic by genomics pioneer Pascal Brandys and virologist Jens Herold, Phylex BioSciences is the first company to pursue the development of a mRNA nanoparticle vaccine against the Nipah virus.
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