Bacterial RNAs As Vaccine Adjuvants

Background & Unmet Need

• Vaccines containing live, attenuated pathogens trigger stronger and longer-lasting immune responses compared to those containing killed pathogens
• Live vaccines carry potential risks to immuno-compromised individuals, as well as a more expensive and complex supply chain
• Adjuvants are compounds which increase local and systemic immune reactions to vaccines
• Current adjuvants (aluminum, oils, or salts) do not elicit the same immune response as live pathogens
• Canonical molecular patterns that alert the immune system of pathogens are present in both live and killed vaccines, suggesting an uncharacterized signal of pathogen viability to our immune system
• Unmet Need: Development of a non-live vaccine which elicits a robust immune response comparable to that of live vaccines

Technology Overview

• The Technology: Bacterial mRNAs as adjuvants to induce robust immune response in both prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines
• The Discovery: The inventors showed that RNA is destroyed when a pathogen is heat-killed prior to injection, and that heat-killed bacteria alone elicit poor immune response
• Addition of purified bacterial RNA to heat-killed E. coli (HKEC) vaccines induced strong cytokine production and increases adaptive immune response
• PoC Data: Compared to HKEC alone, HKEC + RNA induced higher levels of IL-1β and IFN-β in dendritic cells
• HKEC + RNA stimulated an increase of class-switched IgG antibody titers in mice (p ≤ 0.01)
• HKEC + RNA improved both primary and memory T cell responses, as well as increased death of infected cells

Technology Applications

• Improved vaccine potency for humans, pets, and livestock
• Use as adjuvant for vaccines against infectious disease, cancer prevention, and cancer immunotherapies
• Can be used in live, antigen, or mRNA vaccines

Technology Advantages

• Stronger and longer-lasting immune response compared to traditional killed vaccines, without the safety risk and supply chain considerations of live vaccines
• Synthetic bacterial RNAs also elevate immune response, suggesting potential for design of even more effective RNA adjuvants