The Access to Advanced Health Institute will develop an RNA vaccine against the chikungunya virus with a fresh $18 million award from the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
Chikungunya is a mosquito-borne disease that causes joint pain that can sometimes persist for months or years, along with other symptoms.
The virus is endemic to some regions of Africa and Asia and emerged in the Americas in 2013, where it caused more than a million cases within a year. There is no vaccine or approved treatment for the disease.
Vaccine researchers are taking a variety of approaches to chikungunya, testing everything from DNA-based shots to so-called virus-like particles. In June, French biotech company Valneva was first to release results from a phase 3 trial, showing that its single-shot vaccine provoked a strong immune response and was safe.
Valneva’s vaccine is based on a live virus that has been attenuated, meaning that it is no longer infectious. AAHI’s vaccine is similarly designed to yield a full, attenuated virus, only from the underlying RNA code.
That’s a bigger chunk of viral material than RNA vaccines typically handle. In comparison, the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 RNA shots only encode for the viral “spike” protein. Moderna similarly developed early-stage RNA vaccines encoding a portion of the chikungunya virus, but shut its lead program in 2021 despite what it called “positive” phase 1 early data.
AAHI’s shot is likely the first attempt to launch a live attenuated RNA-based vaccine into the clinic, said AAHI scientist Emily Voigt. The new project is designed to take the experimental vaccine through a phase 1 clinical trial and builds on earlier work testing it in animal models.
The promising data from Valneva’s attenuated vaccine is “highly encouraging” for AAHI’s parallel approach, Voigt told GeekWire.
AAHI’s vaccine would also offer storage advantages, she said. It is designed to be stable at room temperature for several months and in the refrigerator for at least a year. It will be developed in a dried form that can be rehydrated on site prior to vaccination.
The design relies on binding RNA to the exterior of a lipid-based particle, which is also easy to manufacture, said Voigt.
Similar technology underlies other AAHI vaccines under development. The Seattle institute is developing a vaccine against yellow fever and Zika virus, and its COVID-19 shot is being tested in phase 1 clinical trials by its partner ImmunityBio. AAHI is also developing an RNA-based tuberculosis shot being tested with other vaccines in collaboration with Texas Biomedical Research Institute, and recently landed a $9.9 million U.S. Government award to develop a nasal spray vaccine against bird flu.
“Our RNA vaccine platform uses standard manufacturing equipment and techniques employed by vaccine manufacturers worldwide that are easy to tech transfer and scale, unlike current mRNA vaccine technology,” said Voigt in a statement Thursday announcing the award. “We hope that these advances will ultimately increase availability and access to highly effective vaccines.”
Chikungunya virus caused a reported 95 deaths in the Americas in 2022, and has spread to more than 40 countries and territories in North, Central and South America.
