COVID-19 has cost the US more than a million lives, significant social upheaval and human suffering and over $16 trillion in treasury. COVID-19 has quickly become the most impactful healthcare, social, and economic crisis of our lifetime. The need for cold storage, requirement for boosters and potential for adverse allergic reactions are major drawbacks of current COVID-19 vaccines. Due to the relatively short-lived persistence of antibodies to coronavirus estimated to be in the range of a few months and the endemic nature of the virus, mRNA vaccination could become a recurring and critical healthcare and economic necessity for COVID-19 and other diseases.
Aphios was awarded a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant to develop a single-shot, room-temperature stable, double-nanoencapsulated mRNA vaccine for COVID-19. The mRNA molecule that encodes the coronavirus Spike protein will be first nanoencapsulated in lipid nanoparticles (LPN) and then into biodegradable polymer nanospheres (PNS). The release of the mRNA LPN vaccine will be controlled by PNS degradation. Thus, mRNA LPN will remain in the body longer and will sustain the persistence of antibodies to the coronavirus. Additionally, double-encapsulation of the mRNA vaccine construct in PNS will protect the lipid mRNA nanoparticle from degradation and increase shelf stability at room and refrigerator temperatures. The double-nanoencapsulation technology will be readily applicable to mRNA vaccines for different COVID-19 variants and other diseases.
Read the original article on Business Wire.
