Caprion Posts Positive Data For Plant-Based Flu Vaccine
Privately held firm Caprion announced that ImmuneCarta, its immune monitoring business unit, has published positive data from two Phase 1/2 clinical trials of its Virus-like particles (VLPs) vaccine targeting H5 and H1 influenza viruses.
The VLP vaccine was made in Nicotina enthamiana, which is closely related to the tobacco plant. The vaccine is developed by Caprion’s partner Medicago, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company that produces vaccines and therapeutic proteins for infectious diseases.
The trials investigated the immune response of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in participants who were vaccinated with placebo, available trivalent inactivated vaccine (Sanofi’s Fluzone), or the company’s VLP vaccine. The immune response was measured ex vivo utilizing multiparametic flow cytometry in cryopreserved peripheral blood mononucleated cells (PMBC). Findings show that Caprion’s plant-made hemagglutinin (HA) VLP vaccines induced a significantly greater cross-reactive, poly-functional CD4+ T-cell response compared to either Fluzone or placebo.
“We are delighted to see continued success and efficacy for Medicago’s VLP vaccines. Plant-based VLP vaccines show great promise to improve the present day egg-derived vaccines,” said Nathalie Landry, VP of Product Development at Medicago. She added that the collaboration between Caprion and Medicago contributed to the positive results jointly published by the partners.
Aside from inducing a strong T-cell immune response, the company reported that the vaccine also induced a humoral immune response that is comparable to those elicited by current flu vaccines.
Caprion said that though further studies are needed to determine the full impact of the T-cell response elicited by the vaccine, the activation of both T and B cell responses by the VLP vaccine offers greater protection from flu. Sanofi Pasteur, the maker of the marketed vaccine Fluzone, recently announced the approval of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a high dose form of the vaccine.
Results from the trial were published in an article entitled “Influenza virus-like particle vaccines made in Nicotiana enthamiana elicit durable, poly-functional, and cross-reactive T cell responses to influenza HA antigens” in the journal Clinical Immunology.