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As in the case of hurricanes, early warning of the location and intensityof virus outbreaks would allow us more rapidly and effectively to defendourselves with strain-specific vaccines. This is now possible.
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To provide this vital knowledge, Drs. Samuel and Elenore Bogoch of theFoundation for Research on the Nervous System and Replikins Ltd. of Boston("Replikins") are presenting new technology at the 7th International Bird FluSummit in Las Vegas November 13-14, 2008 that can accurately predict whichviral strains are poised to attack human populations, and reveal the locationfrom which this viral strain is going to strike. This service is being offeredto WHO and CDC.
The key to this predictive technology is a new class of structural viruspeptides that have been shown to be involved in the chemistry of rapidreplication. The Drs. Bogoch called them "Replikins," and they are strictlydefined by the concentration of lysine and histidine residues and the spacingbetween them. To demonstrate the correlation between the concentration ofreplikins and the lethality of influenza virus outbreaks, Replikins Ltd. hasdeveloped software called FluForecast(R), which counts the number of replikinsin the sequences of each strain of flu virus across the years -- and thanks tothe data in public databases like PubMed, we now can track as far as 90 yearsback.
What Replikins have found is that there's a strong correlation between theconcentration of replikins and the lethality of an influenza virus outbreak.This allows us to determine in advance, using newly designed software, whichviruses have the highest replikin concentrations -- and are thus poised tobecome the most lethal outbreak.
Replikin peptides are not distributed equally throughout the virus genome,but are concentrated in a specific area of the genome designated the ReplikinPeak Gene (RPGene). When the replikin counts for certain viral strains areelevated, we see pandemics -- in which one to 50 million people die. Note thatthe replikins, like the pandemics, are strain-specific.
From its observations Replikins were able to predict an impending increasein human H5N1 mortality rate. In each host group -- goose, duck, chicken andhuman -- levels stayed low through 2004. But then Replikins saw a sudden spikein replikins particularly in chicken and human populations in 2005-06, whichcorresponded with increased epidemics in Asian countries. Which countries?Here again, Replikins looked at H5N1 replikin counts per country. Low levels -- below 4 -- were observed in each country until 2005-06, when it spiked mostdramatically in Indonesia. Replikins thus predicted that Indonesia would bethe first country to experience an H5N1 outbreak with higher human mortality,and this was proven to be correct in 2006-07.
So Replikins have demonstrated that tracking replikin counts not onlyworks historically, but it can predict impending human mortality. Sequence thevirus and you can tell whether it's relatively benign or likely to cause apandemic -- the first time this has been possible.
Replikins is offering its FluForecast(R) service to WHO and CDC as apowerful new tool for tracking the appearance and lethality of new flustrains. By performing prompt replikin analysis of all human influenzasequences as they emerge, we can have advance warning of the intensity andlocation of future human influenza outbreaks. This will increase the accuracyof annual formulations for influenza vaccines, and will thereby hopefullyreduce annual human influenza mortality rates. It is hoped that trackingreplikins will save lives.
Beyond prediction, this new replikin-based technology also can be appliedto combat influenza -- and to develop new vaccines that are more accurate andeffective than current technology provides. Replikins have successfullydemonstrated this capability when used against a virus in shrimp, which aresusceptible to several devastating viral diseases. The replikin-based vaccinedeveloped by Replikins to combat Taura Syndrome virus had a stunning result onthe test population, protecting 91% of the shrimp against this deadly virus.Replikin vaccines work orally -- and can be synthesized far more quickly thanconventional viral vaccines. The vaccine used to save the shrimp wasmanufactured in seven days. You can imagine what this type of rapid lead timewould allow for making on-demand strain-specific influenza vaccines, whichwith traditional methods must be prepared nine months up to a year in advance.
Replikins is working to expand the capabilities of this vaccine technologyand looks forward to making significant inroads to control H5N1 and otherinfluenza populations.
Replikins are the viral tool of the future -- making accurate predictionsin humans and animals now, through the FluForecast(R) service, and hopefullybecoming a front-line weapon to stop viral pandemics in the future.
Contact: John McKenney, Replikins Ltd., 617-536-0220. An expanded versionof this press release, with charts and additional data, will be posted onReplikins' website -- http://www.Replikins.com -- on November 13th.
This release was issued through eReleases(TM). For more information,visit http://www.ereleases.com.
SOURCE Replikins Ltd.
