US 20070224219 A1
Vaccine protection against acute or chronic viral infection is facilitated by using as an adjuvant or immuno-stimulant, a dsRNA together with an anti-influenza vaccine.
1. A method of facilitating vaccine protection against an acute or chronic viral infection comprising the coordinated administration to a subject requiring protection an immunity-inducing amount of an antiviral vaccine together with, as an adjuvant or immuno-stimulant, a dsRNA.
2. A method of facilitating vaccine protection against an acute or chronic viral infection wherein the antiviral vaccine is administered in combination with, as an adjuvant or immuno-stimulant, a dsRNA.
3. A method of facilitating vaccine protection against an acute or chronic viral infection according to
4. A method of protecting an animal or animal cells susceptible to avian flu virus against viral-induced pathology secondary to antigenic drift or shift, as evidenced by mutational changes or molecular rearrangement in the viral particle structure, the method comprising exposing the animal or animal cells to a mismatched dsRNA before, during or after exposure to an anti-avian flu vaccine.
5. A method of facilitating vaccine protection against an acute or chronic avian influenza infection comprising the coordinated administration to a subject requiring protection an immunity-inducing amount of an antiviral vaccine other than avian influenza together with, as an adjuvant or immuno-stimulant, a dsRNA.
6. A method of facilitating vaccine protection against an acute or chronic avian influenza infection according to
7. A method of protecting an animal or animal cells susceptible to avian flu virus comprising exposing the animal or animal cells to a mismatched dsRNA before, during or after exposure to an influenza vaccine other than an anti-avian flu vaccine.
8. A method of claims 1 and 2, where influenza vaccine includes the standard seasonal trivalent influenza vaccine.
9. A method of claims 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, and 7 in which the dsRNA is additionally complexed with an RNA-stabilizing polymer.
10. The method of
This application is a utility version of provisional application Ser. No. 60/793,239 filed Apr. 20, 2006, Ser. No. 60/752,898 filed Dec. 23, 2005 and Ser. No. 60/742,906 filed Dec. 7, 2005, the entire content of each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in this application
Vaccine protection against acute or chronic viral infection is facilitated by using, together with an anti-influenza vaccine, as an adjuvant or immuno-stimulant, a dsRNA.
Adjuvants have been used to facilitate vaccines in affording immunization to protect animals including humans. Identifying an efficient and effective adjuvant is often a difficult task.
Of particular interest are vaccines for protecting against influenza viruses, and of current interest avian influenza virus H5N1 (bird flu) including Vietnam and Hong Kong strains. Inactivated vaccines against influenza virus have been administered parenterally to induce serum antibodies and also to the nasal mucosa to provide mucosal immunity to influenza virus.
Several adjuvants are known such as alum, squalene emulsion (MF 59, Chiron Vaccines), and Freund's adjuvant. Recently a synthetic dsRNA polyriboinosinic polyribocytldylic acid or poly (I:C) has been proposed as an adjuvant or immuno-stimulant for inactivated influenza virus vaccine; see Ichinohe et al, Journal of Virology, March 2005, p. 2910-2919.
Disclosed are methods of facilitating vaccine protection against an acute or chronic viral infection comprising the coordinated administration to a subject requiring protection an immunity-inducing amount of an anti-influenza vaccine together with, as an adjuvant, a dsRNA. Also disclosed are methods of facilitating vaccine protection against an acute or chronic viral infection comprising administering to a subject requiring protection an immunity-inducing amount of an anti-influenza vaccine in combination with, as an adjuvant or immuno-stimulant, a dsRNA.
The invention includes methods of facilitating vaccine protection against an acute or chronic viral infection comprising administering substantially simultaneously or sequentially to a subject requiring protection an immunity-inducing amount of an anti-influenza vaccine together in admixture with, as an adjuvant or immuno-stimulant, a dsRNA.
This invention also includes methods of protecting animals, including humans, susceptible to avian influenza infections against viral-induced pathology secondary to both antigenic drift and shift (as evidenced by rearrangement of the viral particle structure) and genomic rearrangement as well.
The invention further includes methods of enhancing immunization against influenza viruses by coordinated administration of a vaccine to patients together or conjointly a synthetic, specifically configured, double-stranded ribonucleic acid (dsRNA). The dsRNA of choice is AmpligenŽ, available from HEMISPHERX BIOPHARMA, 1617 JFK Boulevard, Philadelphia, Pa. USA., a synthetic, specifically configured, double-stranded ribonucleic acid (dsRNA) which retains the immunostimulatory and antiviral properties of other double-stranded RNA molecules (dsRNA) but exhibits greatly reduced toxicity. Like other dsRNAs, AmpligenŽ can stimulate host defense mechanisms including innate immunity. AmpligenŽ has the ability to stimulate a variety of dsRNA-dependent intracellular antiviral defense mechanisms including the 2′, 5′-oligoadenylate synthetase/RNase L and protein kinase enzyme pathways.
In the context of the present invention, what is meant by “coordinated” use is, independently, either (i) co-administration, i.e. substantially simultaneous or sequential administration of the vaccine and of the dsRNA, or (ii) the administration of a composition comprising the vaccine and the dsRNA in combination and in a mixture, in addition to optional pharmaceutically acceptable excipients and/or vehicles.
The mismatched dsRNA may be of the general formula rInˇr(C12U)n. In this and the other formulae that follow r=ribo. Other mismatched dsRNAs for use in the present invention are based on copolynucleotides selected from poly (Cm,U) and poly (CmG) in which m is an integer having a value of from 4 to 29 and are mismatched analogs of complexes of polyriboinosinic and polyribocytidilic acids, formed by modifying rInˇrCn to incorporate unpaired bases (uracil or guanine) along the polyribocytidylate (rCm) strand. Alternatively, the dsRNA may be derived from r(I)ˇr(C) dsRNA by modifying the ribosyl backbone of polyriboinosinic acid (rIn), e.g., by including 2′-O-methyl ribosyl residues. The mismatched may be complexed with an RNA-stabilizing polymer such as lysine cellulose. Of these mismatched analogs of rInˇrCn, the preferred ones are of the general formula rInˇr(C11-14,U)n or rInˇr(C29,G)n, and are described by Carter and Ts'o in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,130,641 and 4,024,222, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference. The dsRNA's described therein generally are suitable for use according to the present invention.
Other examples of mismatched dsRNA for use in the invention include:
Alternatively the dsRNA may be the matched form, thus polyadenylic acid complexed with polyuridylic acid (poly Aˇpoly U) may also be used.
Another aspect of the invention is the treatment of acute and chronic viral infections susceptible to vaccine prophylaxis therapy, available now or in the future including, for example, HIV, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and influenza including avian influenza employing a synergistic combination of an appropriate vaccine and a dsRNA.
The invention is further explained and illustrated in the following examples and figures in which:
The terms used in the Figures that follow are:
This study was conducted in mice in the manner of Ichinohe et al, Journal of Virology, March, 2005, pages 2910-2919, this time using two different strains of avian flu virus, Vietnam and Hong Kong, and the dsRNA Ampligen, as described above, in combination or alone with the vaccine. The results are given in
In the first panel, from the antibodies detected in the nasal wash use of the (A/VN) vaccine by itself when administered intranasally provided a positive result in raising antibody but when administered with Ampligen produced a result that was more than twice than that of the vaccine used alone. No IgA antibodies were detected using Ampligen alone. The subcutaneous route did not yield any IgA antibodies in the nasal mucosa.
In contrast to this, a limited number of IgG antibodies were raised in the blood serum following intranasal administration but significantly greater amounts were obtained in the blood serum from the subcutaneous administration. Again, the combination of the vaccine plus Ampligen produced a greater result than with the vaccine alone.
The animals were then subjected to a challenge to avian influenza virus Vietnamese strain and, significantly, there was no virus detected in the nasal wash of the challenged animals receiving a combination of vaccine and Ampligen administered by the intranasal route while various amounts of virus were detected using the vaccine alone, Ampligen alone, intranasally, and a combination of vaccine and Ampligen administered subcutaneously.
It is desirable to raise antibodies to the avian flu virus in the nasal mucosa and other mucosa as this is the typical point of entry/infection and is believed to offer a significant preventative or mitigating benefit.
A second set of studies was completed similar to Example 1, this time initially using inactivated avian influenza virus vaccine Vietnam strain in combination with Ampligen or Ampligen alone or the vaccine alone then later challenging with the different Hong Kong strain of avian influenza virus. The results are shown in
These results indicate continued efficacy when the Vietnam strain vaccine-treated patients also receiving Ampligen were later challenged with the Hong Kong strain of the virus and from this it is expected that similar results will occur when the viral strains are reversed and the Hong Kong virus is used to raise the vaccine followed by subsequent challenge with the Vietnam strain.
In this example a study was made to determine how the influence of poly(I:C) on the administration of an avian influenza, Vietnam strain in animals similar to those used in Example 2. The results are presented in
Presence of the Ampligen appears to possess cross-protection ability against variant avian influenza viruses and thereby mitigate antigenic drift of the avian influenza virus.
Antigenic drift is a change in structure of a virus, such as the internal and external proteins, glycoproteins, glycolipids, etc., due to fundamental change in the genomic content of the virus particle. dsRNAs reduce the phenomenon of viral escape and cellular damage attendant thereto. Viral escape is a process by which a virus or intracellular pathogen alters its host range or indirectly alters its susceptibility of antiviral or immunological therapies.
This invention includes methods of cross-protecting animals, including humans, susceptible to avian influenza infections against viral-induced pathology secondary to both antigenic drift and shift (produced by mutations or rearrangement of the viral genetic material).
Two weeks after the second booster the mice were then subjected to challenge with the avian influenza VN1194 (H5N1) strain and assessed for the presence and amount of IgA anti-A/VN in a nasal wash and for IgG antibodies in serum. The results indicate that only with the presence Ampligen and administration by the intranasal route were A/VN IgA antibodies raised against the avian influenza Vietnam (VN1194) strain. While IgG antibodies were raised in the serum against the VN1194 strain from the intranasal administration there were serum antibodies raised with or without the presence of Ampligen using the SC route of administration. Virus titers for the avian flu virus were then assessed after avian influenza VN1194 (H5N1) virus challenge in nasal wash. For the subset receiving both the trivalent seasonal vaccine and Ampligen adjuvant the virus was effectively neutralized while the other groups showed measurable quantities of the A/VN virus.
Our studies also demonstrate the presence of antibodies in blood serum does not necessarily provide an accurate indicator of protection against avian influenza and the more reliable indicator is the antibodies raised in the nasal mucosa.
Avian influenza co-administration studies were extended to a primate model, where vaccination plus co-administered Ampligen was well tolerated and effective. In this study macaques were vaccinated with A/VN plus Ampligen (A/Vietnam (H5N1) 90 μg/500 ml, Ampligen 500 μg), for three doses, spaced 3 and 2 weeks apart. That is, an initial dose, 3 weeks later a second dose and 2 weeks later a third dose. Then the monkeys were challenged 2 weeks after the third does with high doses of A/VN (A/Vietnam (H5N1) 2.5×105 pfu/2.5 ml (lung) and A/Vietnam (H5N1) 0.5×105 pfu/0.5 ml (nasal)) intra-tracheally and intranasally. Infected control animals developed tachypnea, coughing, weight loss, and focal consolidating pneumonia. Vaccinated animals were symptom free, and protected from disease with normal appearing pulmonary tissue.
While the invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the disclosed embodiment, but on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.