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news.Tekmira Pharmaceuticals, a provider of RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutics, has published a series of studies demonstrating the ability of an RNAi therapeutic utilizing its lipid nanoparticle technology, stable nucleic acid-lipid particles (SNALP), to protect nonhuman primates from Ebola virus, a highly contagious and lethal human infectious disease.
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Tekmira’s SNALP technology encapsulates siRNAs in uniform lipid nanoparticles to deliver RNAi therapeutics to disease sites in numerous preclinical models.
Tekmira carried out the studies in collaboration with Boston University’s infectious disease researchers and the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID). It was funded in part by the US government’s transformational medical technologies initiative.
SNALP formulations comprise several lipid components that can be adjusted to suit the specific application and are manufactured by a proprietary method. SNALP-based products have been reviewed by multiple FDA divisions for use in clinical trials.
Tekmira has said that when used to treat infected nonhuman primates, Ebola SNALP resulted in complete protection from an otherwise lethal dose of Zaire Ebola virus.
The Ebola SNALP therapeutic delivered three different siRNAs targeting three separate viral gene products thereby inactivating the virus in three different parts of its life cycle. The three siRNAs were encapsulated in Tekmira’s proprietary SNALP delivery technology engineered for delivery to the cells where the Ebola virus is known to replicate.
All of the nonhuman primates treated with the Ebola SNALP survived the infection and were shown to be free of ZEBOV virus infection within 14 days after inoculation with a lethal dose of ZEBOV virus.
Tekmira has added that it is continuing to work with its collaborators in evaluating RNAi therapeutics targeting lethal hemorrhagic fever viruses, including Ebola virus. Moreover, Tekmira has also applied for additional US government funding to continue this work.
At present, systemic RNAi product candidates are being advanced by Tekmira, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and Roche employ SNALP technology.
Mark Murray, president and CEO of Tekmira, said: “These very striking data are the first demonstration that RNAi is efficacious in an otherwise lethal primate infectious disease setting. It is evidence of the profound potency which can be achieved with RNAi in that all of these animals survived what would have been a lethal dose of Ebola virus. We believe the results of these studies firmly establish that SNALP and RNAi therapeutics have broad utility in infectious diseases.”