SBIR Phase I: Novel COVID-19 Dual-function Therapeutic/Vaccine Product

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发一种新型的双功能治疗/疫苗产品，可以防止病毒进入细胞(治疗效果)，同时还可以刺激对病毒的免疫力(疫苗效果)。该提议产生了立竿见影的效果，因为它寻求合成一种可用于治疗由SARS CoV-2引起的新冠肺炎患者的化合物。具体地说，这种新的解决方案既可以防止SARS-CoV-2进入人类肺细胞，又可以刺激免疫细胞，如树突状细胞，从而导致免疫。建议的解决方案是唯一可以同时作为治疗和疫苗给予感染者的解决方案。这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目旨在开发一种新型的双功能治疗/疫苗解决方案。这项拟议的工作是合成一种含有多个副本的SARS-CoV-2刺突蛋白多肽的化合物，该化合物可以阻止病毒进入宿主细胞。它还将包含一种多肽的多个副本，这种多肽可以将多余的产物引导到免疫细胞，作为疫苗来诱导T细胞反应和中和抗体。使用专利化学在多价骨架上合成多肽的多个副本。这种独特的合成方案允许快速生产这种多价偶联物，但缺乏支持所提议产品的生物活性的原理证明。拟议的研究将完成双功能化合物的合成和表征，从而为后续开发选择主要候选者。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project is to develop a new class of dual-function therapeutic/vaccine products that can prevent viruses from entering cells (therapeutic effect) while also stimulating immunity to viruses (vaccine effect). The proposal has immediate impact in that it seeks to synthesize a compound that can be used to treat patients with COVID-19, caused by SARS CoV-2. Specifically, the novel solution both prevents SARS-CoV-2 from entering human lung cells and stimulates immune cells, such as dendritic cells, resulting in immunization. The proposed solution is the only one that could be given to infected individuals as both a therapy and a vaccine. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project seeks to develop a new class of dual-function therapeutic/vaccine solutions. The proposed work is to synthesize a compound with multiple copies of a peptide from SARS-CoV-2 spike protein that could block the virus from entering host cells. It will also contain multiple copies of a peptide that could direct excess product to immune cells to serve as a vaccine to induce T cell responses and neutralizing antibodies. The multiple copies of the peptides are synthesized on a multivalent backbone using patented chemistry. This unique synthetic scheme allows for the rapid production of such multivalent conjugates, but proof-of-principle supporting the biologic activities of the proposed products is missing. The proposed studies will accomplish the synthesis and characterization of the dual-function compounds, resulting in selection of a lead candidate for subsequent development.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.