A Peptide-mRNA Vaccine for Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever (CCHF)

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The Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) is transmitted to humans via infected ticks and through animal reservoirs that carry the virus. CCHF is also transmitted to humans through close contact and bodily fluids and has a fatality rate of 10-40%. CCHF is restricted to primarily warmer countries so any vaccine needs to withstand extreme temperatures. The CCHF virus has been found in ticks in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and South Western Europe, the widest geographic region of any tick virus which is a potential threat to human health. With continued global warming, the migration of ticks coupled with large animal transmission, places CCHF on the high priority for vaccine development. With a rapid onset of symptoms which progress from typical viral infections into haemorrhaging from several tracts to uncontrolled bleeding, there is a need for a vaccine that not only prevents CCHF but also treats those with CCHF. pHion Therapeutics have developed a peptide termed RALA that can deliver messenger RNA (mRNA) to antigen producing cells to produce a prophylactic T-Cell memory and a therapeutic CD8+ vaccine response. The vision for this project is to apply pHion's technology to develop a vaccine using RALA to deliver mRNA encoding 3 CCHF antigens that will not only prevent patients contracting CCHF but will also treat those that are infected with CCHF. pHion is the only company that has this RALA peptide which can condense multiple mRNA antigenic sequences into nanoparticles which are lyophilised into a product that is stable for \>18 months at room temperature. As our mRNA vaccines do not require cold-chain storage, this enables wide-spread distribution. The pre-clinical objectives are designed over 12 months to formulate and assess the CCHF vaccine in challenge models so that the optimal dose and injection regimen is known. This places pHion ready to progress to toxicology, IND filing and into the clinic with the optimal product. There are also manufacturing and scalability advantages of our RALA/mRNA vaccines which include a fully automated cost -effective process that only requires sterile filtration post-production. The development of this platform technology in this project could be the catalyst for a new generation of room-temperature mRNA vaccines. In addition, this investment represents a further validation of pHion's platform technology, further strengthening the UK's position in the vaccine market with potential for global impact.