Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp. announced an expansion of its strategic collaboration with Southern Research to include a study of T cell immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 in volunteers who have recovered or remain asymptomatic after exposure to COVID-19. The research is part of an ongoing and broader collaboration between Tonix and Southern Research to develop and conduct animal testing of Tonix’s TNX-1800, which is a live replicating virus vaccine designed to protect against COVID-19. The data will support the interpretation of animal trial results with TNX-1800, which are expected in the fourth quarter of 2020 and subsequent human trials.
“More than 200 years of vaccine experience, beginning with Dr. Edward Jenner’s landmark discoveries with horsepox and cowpox vaccines, have shown that T cell eliciting vaccines are particularly effective against viruses,” said Seth Lederman, M.D., President and CEO of Tonix. “We believe that protective vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus will be similar in that regard. The data we plan to collect from recovered and asymptomatic COVID-19 volunteers will inform vaccine development on how to safely provide to vaccine recipients the same immune responses that others got from recovering from actual CoV-2 infection. If approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in healthy, non-pregnant adults without moderate or severe eczema, TNX-1800 would feature single-dose immunity without the use of adjuvants, ease of manufacturing on readily available systems, and glass-sparing distribution since we believe 100 doses of TNX-1800 could be packaged in a single vial. Our goal with TNX-1800 is to develop a vaccine that is well tolerated, produces strong, long-lasting immunity, and can be rapidly and broadly deployed.”
Dr. Lederman, a former tenured professor at Columbia Medical School, who has made original contributions to immunology and virology, continued, “Tonix’s TNX-1800 is based on a virus that we believe is closely related to Dr. Jenner’s first vaccine. Vaccines that descended from Dr. Jenner’s vaccine were used to eradicate smallpox globally, the only virus ever successfully eradicated. Smallpox was spread through the respiratory route, but it was eradicated with a vaccine administered in the arm. Tonix’s lead COVID-19 vaccine candidate, TNX-1800, is designed to elicit a predominant T cell response, with some antibody response, while three other early candidates in the Company’s vaccine portfolio are designed to elicit almost pure T cell responses.” Dr. Lederman added, “The features of a protective immune response to SARS-CoV-2 remain unknown. But since SARS-CoV-2 is a virus, we believe that T cell responses, in particular T Helper Type 1, or TH1 responses, will play an important if not dominant role in protecting against serious illness from COVID-19. These studies will provide us with a blueprint for interpreting the results of planned animal and human studies with TNX-1800.”
Raj Kalkeri, Ph.D., from Southern Research and technical lead for this study, said, “This is groundbreaking research with regards to COVID-19. As scientists, we know that the most successful vaccines mimic and potentiate how the immune system responds to an invader. This additional work we are doing with Tonix will add focus to that objective. We are looking forward to a timely completion of this study, utilizing readouts from a variety of assays that can provide information about TH1 or other types of immunity.”
An expert team of scientists from Southern Research, including Raj Kalkeri, Ph.D., Elizabeth Wonderlich, Ph.D., John Farmer, Ph.D. and Fusataka Koide, Director of Virology, is working on this collaboration.