AVI BioPharma Reports Effectiveness Of Immune Control Through RNA-Based Therapeutics

AVI BioPharma has announced presentation of data regarding the company’s antisense technology for control of the immune response in hemorrhagic virus infections, including Ebola and Marburg virus, at the 49th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) in San Francisco, CA.

The data from preclinical studies demonstrated that specific peptide conjugated phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomers (PPMO) targeting innate and adaptive immune responses can diminish hemorrhagic viral pathogenesis and dramatically increase host survival rates in mouse lethal challenge studies.

The experimental design involved injection of PPMO into mice four hours prior to infection with a mouse-adapted Ebola Zaire virus. Results demonstrated that treatment with a PPMO targeting the IL-10 exon 4 splice acceptor resulted in an average 60% survival (41 survivors in 70 challenged and treated mice) and, in one experiment, 100% survival (10 survivors of 10 infected and treated mice), whereas untreated controls showed only 18 +/- 16% survival (N=220).

These data are a result of continued studies conducted in collaboration with the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID).

Patrick Iversen, senior vice president of Strategic Alliances, said: “The observed high effectiveness of the PPMOs targeting immune responses to Ebola and Marburg viruses suggests that such an application could potentially be applied to other viruses or vaccines to provide a broader and more sustained therapeutic benefit. The reduction in viral pathogenesis through gene-specific immune modulation could potentially be applied to numerous areas of unmet medical need.”