Cross Protective Flu Vaccine
Capricorn develops cross-protective (Universal) flu vaccine for swine and for horses and camels, each enriched by conserved CTL epitopes form virus serotypes that are observed in the respective species. This vaccine is based on UniFliVec vector, hyperattenuated influnza virus that already has cross-protective properties.
Vector in Vaccination and Challenge
In the study conducted by the NIH (SR Study 15891.44.06) to assess the protective properties of the vector against influenza virus challenge, the experiments were carried out in ferrets, a model known for its high resistance to influenza virus (typically, infection does not lead to mortality in test animals). However, in this experiments we challanged the animals with influenza A strain A/Indonesia/5/2005 (H5N1) via the intranasal route , with a high dose of lg(6) per animal. This strain is among the deadliest influenza viruses and caused 40% mortality in non-vaccinated ferrets.
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In this experiments 3 variants of vector were tested with different pathogen insert (irrelevant to flu). After single intranasal vaccination the ferrets were challanged on day 21.
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Remarkably a single vaccination was sufficient to protect the animals fully, which was reflected by their mortality, weight loss and behaviour.
Survival
Weight Loss
Virus Load
Tests conducted on challenged ferrets revealed rapid clearance of the virus in all vaccinated animals, contrasting with the ongoing infection observed in surviving control animals (figure above).
Furthermore, the results indicated a decrease in activity levels among the non-vaccinated animals , with higher scores indicating greater impairment in ferrets' activity. Additionally, surviving non-vaccinated animals exhibited weight loss following the infection (figures on the left)