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

表达抗原以促进对特定病原体的保护性免疫反应的病毒(疫苗)，或传递治疗性基因(基因疗法)或治疗癌症(溶瘤病毒疗法)的病毒，是用于预防和治疗人类和动物疾病的基本工具。然而，病毒作为疫苗或治疗剂生产的一个相当大的障碍是制造成本。该项目的目标是测试Mirexus的植物糖原纳米颗粒(PHG)技术是否可以用作细胞培养添加剂，以显著提高病毒疫苗载体的产量。Mirexus是一家总部位于安大略省的领先生物纳米材料公司，该公司生产具有宝贵性能特征的植物糖原纳米颗粒，目前已被广泛应用于各种个人护理应用。虽然PHG传统上一直被营销到化妆品和食品行业，但Mirexus正在快速开发用于生物医学和制药行业的基于PhG的技术。初步结果表明，PHG(免疫调节-PHG，IM-PHG)的专有修饰增强了体外病毒的产生，这种作用在从鱼到人以及水生和哺乳动物病毒的细胞系中都是保守的，包括将流感病毒的产生提高1000倍。为了发展他们的业务和扩大他们的应用平台，Mirexus正在寻求研究IM-PHG是否可以作为一种细胞培养剂来促进病毒疫苗的生产。尽管Mirexus拥有合成和修饰PhG的专业知识，但他们没有进行这些实验所需的基础设施(例如BSL 2实验室、获取病毒的途径)或病毒学专业知识。这项Engage赠款的目的是促进Mirexus和一个学术病毒学实验室之间的合作，该实验室可以评估上述增强效果是否延伸到新城疫病毒的生产，新城疫病毒是一种对动物健康具有重要工业意义的疫苗载体，在哺乳动物细胞和胚胎鸡蛋中具有重要作用。由于Mirexus是一家加拿大公司，其应用程序平台的扩展应该会导致对这项专利技术的需求增加，并为加拿大人提供更多高科技工作。

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.