Sent Jan. 13, 1999 (From Jan McCoy Hutchinson, (520) 748-4458)
101 N. Wilmot Road, Suite 600 Tucson, AZ 85711-3365
http://www.rctech.com
Contact: Dr. Susan Carson, RCT Life Sciences Associate (520) 748-4462, (520) 748-0025 fax [email protected]
Patented Subunit Vaccine May Prevent Both Chickenpox and Shingles
A recently patented technology may provide a safer and more versatile vaccine against the virus that causes millions of chickenpox and shingles cases each year in the United States.
U.S. Patent No. 5,824,319 issued recently to Research Corporation Technologies (RCT) for the production and use of a recombinant subunit vaccine against the varicella-zoster virus (VZV). The vaccine reduces the risks of vaccines made with live viruses because it uses only the viral components needed to create a protective response. The VZV subunit vaccine contains an abbreviated form of the glycoprotein on the surface of the virus that stimulates the immune system to produce virus-neutralizing antibodies.
Initial studies by the inventor, Dr. Abbas Vafai, show the subunit vaccine induces antibodies against VZV in both animals and humans, including humans previously infected with the virus. Vafai, who is now with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, initiated and completed this invention at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver and the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford.
To produce the vaccine, Vafai constructed an expression vector that secretes truncated VZV glycoprotein from mammalian cells. The secreted glycoprotein can be prepared and purified in large quantities.
Chickenpox (varicella) is the result of the first encounter with VZV, a member of the human herpesvirus family. Symptoms include blister-like sores, headache, fever and sore throat. The virus becomes latent in sensory nerve cells and can reactivate years later to produce shingles (zoster), a painful rash occurring usually on the face and trunk of the body. Neural pain can last from four weeks to several years after the rash erupts. Since zoster reactivates in aging individuals whose immune responses against VZV decline, incidents of shingles are expected to rise as the baby-boom generation ages.
Although rarely fatal in healthy persons, VZV infection can be life threatening to persons with suppressed immune systems, such as cancer, organ transplant and AIDS patients. The virus may cause severe malformations in infants born to women who are infected while pregnant.
A live, attenuated varicella vaccine has proven safe and effective in both healthy and immunocompromised children and adolescents, but the vaccine still becomes dormant in nerve tissue, the same as natural infection.
Because the VZV subunit vaccine excludes the infectious viral material, it reduces the potential for reactivation. Such a technology could generate lucrative new markets with products such as vaccines for children and immunocompromised patients, and immunity boosters to prevent zoster reactivation. The purity of the secreted glycoprotein makes it useful in diagnostic assays to determine VZV immunity levels.
RCT is managing commercialization of the VZV subunit vaccine technology for the University of Colorado. For licensing information, contact Dr. Susan Carson, RCT Life Sciences Associate, (520) 748-4462, (520) 748-0025 fax, [email protected].
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