Development of the new viral vaccine strategy against SARS-COV-2

• Grant number: 20/09681-4
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Innovative Research in Small Business - PIPE
• Duration: May 01, 2021 - January 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Immunology - Applied Immunology
• Principal Investigator: Marcel Montels Trevisani
• Grantee: Marcel Montels Trevisani
• Host Company: Invent Biotecnologia Ltda. - ME
• CNAE: Atividades profissionais, científicas e técnicas não especificadas anteriormente
• City: Ribeirão Preto
• Associated grant(s): 22/09528-7 - Development of the new viral viccine strategy against SARS-CoV-2, AP.PIPE
• Associated scholarship(s): 21/04974-6 - Development of the new viral vaccine strategy against SARS-CoV-2, BP.PIPE

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has mobilized researchers all over the world for the purpose of developing technology to fight against the coronavirus. The Sars-Cov2 belongs to a coronavirus family which affects people and animals all over the world, it can cause common colds to severe respiratory diseases such as the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). After a few cases of atypical pneumonia at the end of 2019, the disease disseminated globally, showing high rates of transmission, leading the WHO to declare Public Health Emergency of International Concern, in January 2020, and it was considered a pandemic on March 11, 2020. Many countries have decided to adhere to social distancing as the only alternative to control the transmission rates of the disease, and thus, avoid overwhelming health care services. However, the different levels of restrictions led to a global depression in economies around the world. Several initiatives have been developed to contain the virus and its effects through the economy and health, but the development of an effective vaccine is the technology that will bring the greatest impact to control this pandemic. Intra-muscular vaccines are among the vaccines in development that are most promising. In this project, the proposal is to develop a vaccine based on Salmonella enterica Typhimurium carrying viral proteins against Sars-CoV-2, given that we own the technology and master the vaccinal process with proven effectiveness for other diseases such as Rhodococcus equi, in which our vaccine has been successful through immunization protocols with one or two oral doses or even with a single nasal dose, being capable of protecting mice against experimental with the induced infection agent, leading to cells immunization, systemic humoral and mucous with generation of immunological memory. In this proposal, the developed vaccines will be administered orally or intranasally, in order to facilitate production processes, bring low operation cost, decrease the contamination risks observed for the injected vaccines, enabling large-scale use. Our proposal, if successful during the entire development cycle, will come at following stage to the vaccines that have already been developed. (AU)