US company Arcturus Therapeutics and Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore have received approval from the country’s Health Sciences Authority (HSA) to guage its Covid-19 vaccine candidate LUNAR-COV19 in a Phase I/II clinical trial.
Arcturus and Duke-NUS collaborated creation of a Covid-19 vaccine based on STARR technology and the Duke-NUS platform designed for rapid screening of vaccines for safety and effectiveness.
STARR technology uses self-replicating mRNA together with LUNAR, a nanoparticle delivery system for mRNA molecules.
In animal studies, LUNAR-COV19 was in a position to induce humoral and cellular immunity at doses as little as 0.2 µg. Arcturus also demonstrated 100% seroconversion of anti-SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies with only a single dose of two µg.
Recent preclinical studies have shown that neutralizing antibody levels proceed to extend in response to a single dose of LUNAR-COV19 over 50 days. The rising levels of antibodies are regarded as on account of self-replicating mRNA within the vaccine.
Deputy Director of the Duke-NUS Emerging Infectious Diseases Program, Professor Ooi Eng Eong, said: “Pre-clinical studies on LUNAR-COV19 have shown very promising results, including the chance that a single dose of this vaccine could also be sufficient to induce a robust and sustained immune response against SARS -CoV-2.
“We are very keen to initiate a first-in-human clinical trial here in Singapore and advance LUNAR-COV19 towards a potential commercial vaccine.”
Source: Clinical Research Arena
