Nordic Life Science 1
n Denmark, company PentaBase’s solution is being
explored by the government. The company possesses technologies and knowledge that may be very useful in fighting the ongoing pandemic, including SARS-CoV-2 oligonucleotides, a SARSCoV-2 test assay and instruments for SARSCoV-2 detection. The race towards a vaccine Nordic scientists and companies are also taking part in the global efforts to find an effective vaccine as fast as possible, and with as few side effects as possible. For example researchers at Karolinska Institutet are part of a global consortium Opencorona, for the purpose of research and development, and phase I clinical trial testing of a DNA vaccine against COVID-19. Partners in the consortium also include Cobra Biologics, Karolinska University Hospital, Public Health Authority (FoHM), IGEA, Adlego and Giessen University. The aim of the project is to manufacture a DNA vaccine, which will be delivered to patient muscle to generate a viral antigen, on which the immune system then reacts. The ‘open’ project will utilize Cobra’s 50L DNA suite in Matfors, Sweden to produce the plasmid DNA. The plasmid production will support the vaccine development process in accordance with GMP and with a new kind of ‘open’-ness that will help to speed the fight against COVID-19 by making relevant data and research results available to the wider scientific community. “The need to find an effective vaccine is urgent and we are working as quickly as possible to find one,” says Matti Sällberg, Head of Department of Laboratory Medicine, Karolinska Institutet. Also in Sweden, Uppsala-based Novavax is involved in finding a vaccine based on its nanoparticle adjuvant, and ISR Immune Systems, together with biotech company TCER, is developing a vaccine aimed to be distributed by inhalation into the lung in order to stop the infection at an early stage. The two collaborators hope to start human clinical trials during Q4 2020. In addition, the Lund based company Red Glead Discovery is collaborating with Norwegian Immunor to develop a peptide-based vaccine. University of Copenhagen spin-out company Immunitrack is also utilizing its cancer vaccine technology to fight COVID-19. Since the company was founded five years ago it has developed a novel type of peptide Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) assay that looks at the actual stability of the peptide MHC complex. The COVID-19 genome encodes ten proteins, including the “spike” protein (S-protein), which is a glycoprotein present on the viral surface. The S-protein is considered an attractive therapeutic target given its location, and it is therefore targetable using antibodies. ”Although the S-protein may elicit an immune reaction, it is not yet known whether or not this would be sufficient to mount the sustained immune response needed to fight COVID-19 infection,” describes Sune Justesen, CSO of Immunitrack. ”In recent years, the contribution of cellular responses, particularly those of CD8 T cells, has increasingly been recognized as an important component of the antiviral immune response. Thus, screening and testing for COVID-19 epitopes that stimulate CD8 and CD4 T cells may aid the development of more effective vaccines. Such efforts could also reveal novel biomarkers to aid immune monitoring in COVID-19-infected persons prior to and after vaccination.” ustesen and his colleagues believe that the key to developing powerful vaccines is to combine epitopes that stimulate an antibody response with epitopes that stimulate a cellular response. However, finding out which epitopes lead to highly effective immune responses and are thus worth pursuing for vaccine development is a challenge. ”Our first results have confirmed what we already knew, that current in silico epitope prediction tools only work well for a few well described MHC alleles. For the remaining, precision is low, and for these alleles the precision could be down to five percent, meaning that out of 100 predicted epitopes only five actually bind to the MHC. We are currently rolling out a new campaign that is going to analyze 1,200 overlapping 9mer (9-bp) peptides from the spike protein. Since most if not all current vaccine efforts are focused on generating immunity to the spike protein we expect this project to be of even higher value,” says Justesen in March. Another example is Danish AdaptVac. The company is part of the Prevent-nCoV consortium and its universal viral Capsid-Like Particle will be employed to deliver an optimal vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 virus. The consortium has won a Horizon 2020 EU grant of 2.7 million EUR. Professor Gunnveig Grødeland at Oslo University Hospital is also aiming to develop a novel vaccine against the new disease. She and her colleagues have previously developed a DNA based vaccine platform. ”The platform is designed for rapid response against a novel virus. The DNA format in itself allows for rapid production and deployment (independently of a cold chain). Further, the viral antigen is linked to a targeting moiety that will steer the vaccine proteins specifically to the most relevant immune cells for stimulation of protective immunity,” explains Grødeland. In brief, the vaccine will be delivered as DNA, and following DNA uptake by the cells at the injection site, these cells will produce the vaccine protein that is then steered specifically to the relevant immune cells.