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Constrained proteins and uses therefor (PH tag)

Summary

MicroCubes are protein-based vaccines that can accommodate various antigens and elicit strong T-cell responses. They distinguish themselves by unique crystalline organisation, resulting in slow-release of the antigen and self-adjuvanted stimulation of both arms of the immune system.

Technology Benefits

- Versatile vaccine platform to deliver a wide range of antigens.
- Induce strong antigen-specific cellular and humoral immune responses without additional adjuvant
- Heat, freeze, and protease-resistance facilitates vaccine storage
- Second generation ‘PH-MicroCube’ can accommodate full-length, functional membrane proteins with native structure

Technology Application

Vaccine platform

Detailed Technology Description

The ease of design and versatility of MicroCubes supports their use as a potential generic platform for vaccines against cancer and infectious diseases such as HIV, Hep B, influenza and TB. The superior stability of MicroCubes indicates that they will be particularly suitable in cases where the cold chain is too costly or is impractical to maintain. They have been developed from protein crystals produced by common insect viruses. These crystals function to protect the virus particles and are thus robust and able to package large protein cargoes.

We have engineered MicroCubes to incorporate antigens of interest in place of the virus particles, thereby exploiting their remarkable robustness and multivalent presentation of antigens. Importantly, their capacity to accommodate cargoes of different sizes and structures is unique, and vastly superior to that of traditional virus-like particles. Murine immunisation studies showed no toxic effect of MicroCubes and demonstrated that HIV Gag MicroCubes induce robust Gag-specific humoral and cellular responses. The technology has also demonstrated promising results when applied to the HA hemagglutinin antigen in a murine challenge model of influenza.

Type of Cooperation

Licensing

Application Date

21/07/2015 00:00:00

Application No.

AU2015292261
Others

Others

Monash seeks a partner to optimise and adapt the MicroCube system for application.

ID No.

2014-029

Country/Region

Australia