Inovio Biomedical Corp.(INO) announced that its SynCon Chikungunya virus DNA vaccine induced protective neutralizing antibody responses in a preclinical non-human primate model. Chikungunya virus or CHIKV is an emerging mosquito-borne alpha-virus native to tropical Africa and Asia.
Inovio scientists used its proprietary SynCon approach to develop a universal CHIKV DNA vaccine. In previous mice studies, Inovio scientists found that this universal vaccine induced protective neutralizing antibody responses and demonstrated protection from both death and illness in a challenge-protection model.
In the present study, the vaccine efficacy was further tested in a monkey model, the closest animal model to humans. In this model, 100% of the vaccinated animals developed protective neutralizing antibody responses against native CHIKV, demonstrating the utility and effectiveness of this vaccine in an advanced preclinical model.
Inovio recently announced interim data from a Phase I therapeutic HPV/cervical cancer vaccine trial showing significant and robust T-cell and antibody immune responses, results that highlight the potential broad utility of its DNA vaccine technology platform and applicability to many diseases, such as Chikungunya virus.
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