Signal Peptide Combination Could Become Coronavirus Vaccine 

An Israel based biotech company announced that it has completed in silico analyses and believes that it has successfully identified a coronavirus vaccine candidate for the COVID-19 disease.

Vaxil Bio Ltd.’s vaccine candidate is based on unique and patent-protected signal peptide technology, utilizing Vaxil’s proprietary VaxHit™ bioinformatics platform. 

Announced in a press release on February 14, 2020, this COVID-19 vaccine candidate’s design is based on successful in vivo experiments testing a tuberculosis signal peptide vaccine. 

“We are very excited to have been able to isolate a preliminary (vaccine) candidate that might address the current and emerging need in such a short time,” said David Goren, Vaxil’s Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer.

Mr. Goren continued to explain in this press release that “we have identified signal peptide combinations which we believe can be effective as a prophylactic vaccine against the current coronavirus and might also demonstrate therapeutic value in the future.”

Human coronaviruses were first identified in the mid-1960s. Coronaviruses are named for the crown-like spikes on their surface. 

On January 9, 2020, China's CDC reported a novel coronavirus as the causative agent of the new coronavirus outbreak, which is phylogenetically in the SARS-CoV clade.

This novel coronavirus has been named ‘severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2’ (SARS-CoV-2), while the coronavirus disease associated with it is now referred to as COVID-19.

Vaxil says it ‘exploits the unique properties of signal peptide domains on crucial proteins to develop targeted therapies against cancer targets and infectious disease pathogens. These signal peptide domains are identified by VaxHit™, Vaxil’s proprietary bioinformatics approach.

These SPs induce a robust T- and B-cell response across wide and varied HLA subtypes, while acting as true, universal neoantigens. The peptide platform targets these cells by “educating” or specifically activating the immune system to recognize and attack the affected cells. 

In addition, Vaxil’s mAb platform directly recognizes the target protein expressed on malignant cells and recruits other elements of the immune system to lyse those cells.

Separate COVID-19 vaccine news can be found at this link. 

COVID-19 preventive and therapeutic vaccine development news published by Precision Vaccinations.