Drug Delivery Business

NanoViricides inks deal for shingles study

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NanoViricides inks deal for shingles studyNanoViricides, Inc. (NYSE:NNVC) said today that it inked a deal with SUNY Upstate Medical University for the evaluation of its nanovirivides drug candidates against varicella zoster virus, also called the shingles virus.

The goal of these in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo studies will be to help select a clinical drug development candidate for toxicology and safety evaluation intended for future clinical trials , according to the Shelton, Connecticut-based company.

Researchers in the trail aim to evaluate the efficacy of the company’s nanoviricides antiviral agents against the shingles virus in human cells, as well as human skin organ cultures. A model developed by lead researacher Jennifer Moffat demonstrates behavior similar to the skin lesions caused by shingles in human patients.

Nanoviricides describes its nanoviricide technology as an agent designed to fool a virus into attaching to it, in the same way that a virus normally attaches to receptors on the surface of a cell. After the virus is attached, the nanoviricide wraps around the virus, effectively trapping it. The virus loses its coat proteins that it needs to bind to a cell, neutralizing the threat of the virus attaching to any other cells. 
The company touts its technology as an effective way to attack a virus without using the patient’s own immune system. It has created nanoviricides that are virus-specific therapies, as well as broad-spectrum nanoviricides that can bind to as many as 90-95% of known viruses, according to NanoViricides. 
The company is working on therapies for a number of viral diseases including H5N1 bird flu, seasonal influenza, HIV, hepatitis C, rabies, Ebola, and more.

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