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Synthetic immunology to engineer pan-coronavirus immunity

Grant number: unknown

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Key facts

  • Disease

    COVID-19, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)

  • Known Financial Commitments (USD)

    $292,500

  • Funder

    BBVA Foundation (Spain)

  • Principal Investigator

    Luis Álvarez Vallina

  • Research Location

    Spain

  • Lead Research Institution

    Unidad de Inmunología, Fundación de Investigación 12 de Octubre

  • Research Priority Alignment

    N/A

  • Research Category

    Vaccines research, development and implementation

  • Research Subcategory

    Pre-clinical studies

  • Special Interest Tags

    N/A

  • Study Type

    Non-Clinical

  • Clinical Trial Details

    N/A

  • Broad Policy Alignment

    Pending

  • Age Group

    Not Applicable

  • Vulnerable Population

    Not applicable

  • Occupations of Interest

    Not applicable

Abstract

The destruction of natural habitats suggests the appearance of more epidemic outbreaks caused by other emerging coronaviruses in the future. The objective of this project is to develop and validate at a preclinical level a synthetic immunology strategy to generate 'pan-coronavirus' immunity, that is, not only against SARS-CoV-2, but in general against coronavirus species that use the protein ACE2 as a gateway to the human cell. The researchers will follow a very novel synthetic immunotherapy strategy: they will produce in the laboratory a new generation of molecules called spikebodies , due to their ability to block the interaction of ACE2 with the S glycoprotein ( spike ) of different coronaviruses. They will test their activity with various coronaviruses.