Evaluating immuno-modulatory phytoglycogen nanoparticles for enhanced production of newcastle disease virus

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Viruses engineered to express antigens to promote a protective immune response against a particular pathogen(vaccine), or to deliver a therapeutic gene (gene therapy) or to treat cancer (oncolytic virotherapy) are essentialtools used in the prevention and treatment of human and animal disease. However, a considerable impedimentto the production of viruses as vaccines or therapeutic agents is the cost of manufacturing. The goal of thisproject is to test whether Phytoglycogen nanoparticle (PhG) technology from Mirexus can be used as a cellculture additive to dramatically increase viral vaccine vector production. Mirexus is a leadingbio-nanomaterials company based in Ontario that produces phytoglycogen nanoparticles with valuableperformance characteristics that are currently leveraged across a wide variety of personal care applications.While traditionally PhG has been marketed to the cosmetic and food industries, Mirexus is rapidly developingPhG-based technologies for the biomedical and pharmaceutical industries. Preliminary results indicate that aproprietary modification of PhG (immune-modulating-PhG, IM-PhG) enhances in vitro virus production andthis effect is conserved between cell lines derived from fish to humans and both aquatic and mammalianviruses, including a 1000-fold enhancement of influenza virus production. To grow their business and expandtheir applications platform, Mirexus is seeking to investigate whether IM-PhG can be used as a cell cultureadditive to boost production of viral vaccines. Although Mirexus has the expertise to synthesize and modify thePhG, they do not have the infrastructure (e.g. BSL 2 laboratory, access to viruses) or the virology expertisenecessary to conduct these experiments. The purpose of this Engage grant is to facilitate collaboration betweenMirexus and an academic virology lab that can evaluate whether the above mentioned enhancing effect extendsto the production of Newcastle Disease Virus, an industrially important vaccine vector for animal health, inmammalian cells and embryonated eggs. As Mirexus is a Canadian company, expansion of its applicationsplatform should lead to increased demand for this patented technology and more high tech jobs for Canadians.