Immune-mediated diseases such as type 1 diabetes (T1D), multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and systemic lupus erythematosis are reaching epidemic proportions in the US. T1D results from a breakdown of self-tolerance that is characterized by immune cell mediated destruction of the insulin-producing ?-cells in the pancreas. Ultimately, glucose metabolism is interrupted resulting in the development of life-threatening complications such as heart disease and renal failure. T1D affects an estimated 3 million Americans, with more than 30,000 new patients diagnosed annually, resulting in roughly $15B in health care costs in the US each year. Clearly, the cost associated with treatment and care of T1D in the US is significant, both to society and the individual, and a novel therapy is desperately needed to thwart this aberrant autoimmune activity. This is a need that Onevax, LLC is committed to fulfilling. The biomedical research community has sought better ways to induce specific immune tolerance for nearly 50 years. Clinical intervention trials using immunomodulatory agents (e.g., anti-CD3) have failed to meet clinical endpoints, despite positive results in phase I/II trials. Moreover, traditional vaccine strategies providing auto-antigen or peptides alone failed to adequately block ongoing beta cell immunity. Thus, a new treatment strategy that is both potent and durable is required to effectively halt the ongoing attack in T1D. Therapeutic vaccination approaches for T1D utilizing dendritic cells (DCs) hold promise to correct antigen-specific autoimmune responses, but current strategies involving exogenous manipulation of DCs are unstable, inefficient and expensive. OneVax has developed a novel tolerogenic vaccine approach using FDA-approved and GMP-compatible components to administer immuno-modulatory factors in vivo to phagocytic DCs, the most efficient antigen presenting cell type of the body and key regulator of the immune system. OneVax?s therapy is minimally invasive, requires no costly cell isolation and storage, and, due to its stable composition, has an extended shelf-life, simplifying manufacturing and shipping. Preliminary data strongly suggests that this biomaterial-based, microparticle vaccine system prototype holds great promise for correcting autoimmune responses in T1D. The objective of this Phase I proposal is to optimize the formulation of our vaccine system from a four-microparticle formulation to a minimized two-particle system allowing for efficient manufacturing and safety validation of the vaccine formulation downstream for eventual use in human clinical trials. More specifically, the sizing, agglomeration status, encapsulation efficiency, and release kinetics of the new particle vaccine system will be assessed, as will the capacity for the new system to induce DC tolerization in vitro and prevent diabetic onset in clinically relevant animal models in vivo. Most importantly, strategic collaborations between OneVax and the Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator, the Biomedical Engineering Department, the College of Medicine, and the Diabetes Institute at the University of Florida boost the capability of OneVax to complete the desired goals.
Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is an autoimmune disease that carries a personal health burden that extends to a tremendous socioeconomic impact in the US. Therapeutic vaccination approaches for T1D hold promise to correct these antigen-specific autoimmune responses. We seek to develop an easily injectable, polymeric biomaterial-based microparticle vaccine capable of targeted delivery of immuno-modulatory agents to immune cells. Our goal is to create a vaccine product that will reverse the autoimmune process that drives T1D, while also limiting off-target effects that result from systemic administration of immunosuppressive drugs.
