Proteosomes as adjuvants, allowing intra-nasal vaccines, apparently.
ID Biomedical announces intranasal allergy vaccine program
TRADING SYMBOLS - NASDAQ - "IDBE", TSE - "IDB"
VANCOUVER, Oct. 10 /PRNewswire/ - ID Biomedical announced today, that after generating positive results from preclinical studies, it will advance an allergy vaccine development program towards human testing. The allergy vaccine program is based on ID Biomedical's proprietary, intranasal adjuvant/delivery platform, Proteosomes(TM).
Allergic individuals produce elevated levels of the cytokines IL-4 and IL- 5 in response to allergens to which they are sensitive. This response results in the production of IgE and symptoms of allergy (for example, hay fever). Recently, it has been shown that successful treatment of allergy by desensitization immunotherapy (allergy shots) is associated with a shift from a Type II (high IgE, IL-5 and IL-4) to a Type I (high IgG and IFN-y) immune response against the allergen.
In the October, 2001 issue of the journal Vaccine (Vol. 20/1-2 pp218- 225), ID Biomedical scientists described animal studies in which FluINsure(TM), the Company's intranasal flu vaccine, induced high levels of virus neutralizing antibodies and offered complete protection against lethal challenge from influenza virus. An important aspect of this study was the finding that Proteosome-based FluINsure also induced a strong Type I immune response without stimulating the production of Type II cytokines, which are associated with allergic responses.
Based upon this finding, ID Biomedical scientists tested a Proteosome- based allergy vaccine, using the major allergen from birch tree pollen (an important cause of hay fever), in an appropriate animal model. Results confirm that Proteosomes switch the immune response against the allergen from an allergy-associated Type II response to an immunotherapy-associated Type I response. The data from this and additional studies are planned to be presented in March 2002 at the American Academy for Allergy Asthma and Immunology meeting in New York.
Dr. David Burt, ID Biomedical's Vice President of Research, said, ``The ability of Proteosome-based vaccines to induce strong Type I immunity opens up whole new areas of vaccine development. Obviously, the results we've obtained in allergy are very exciting and we can now focus on clinical development. In addition, therapeutic vaccines against cancer and a wider variety of vaccines against infectious disease agents can now be explored.''
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