Inovio INO-4800
The application of synthetic DNA medicine (INO-4800) in blocking the infection pathway of SARS-CoV-2 have already passed phase 1 of clinical trial on a positive note at Inovio as they now look forward to add participants of older age. Unlike RNA-based vaccine candidates, synthetic DNAs are much easier to design and amplify. They are also more temperature-stable and resistant to nucleases. Previous works done on the MERS-CoV vaccine with INO-4700 as well as Zika virus with GLS-5700 were quite successful in halting infections. These experiences show that INOVIO could potentially apply similar strategies to drive neutralizing antibody responses for long-term protection from COVID-19. In general, induction of INO-4800 to African green monkey fibroblast (COS-7) and human kidney (HEK-293T) cell lines both showed substantial levels of antibodies in serum. It is capable of activating cellular and humeral responses within several days post immunization. The receptor binding domain sequence of the spike protein was cloned into pGX9501 and pGX9503 vectors that are transfected into COS-7 and HEK-293T cells showed high levels of RNA levels upon detection by RT-qPCR. Spike protein expression was measured by Western blot to be consistently high and further confirmed qualitatively through immunofluorescence staining. INO-4800 seemed to exhibit competitive inhibition against ACE2 receptor and was also detected in the lungs that halted Lower Respiratory Disease (LRD).
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SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19)
Biomedical Sciences