Other Development Programs

Potential Applications

The Kunjin replicon has been successfully used to express a range of genes encoding antigens that may be useful in human vaccine applications, including:

• Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) M2 protein
• Hepatitis Core, NS3 and CTL epitope proteins
• Ebola VP40, NP and glycoprotein
• Vesicular stomatitis virus G protein

Opportunity for an RSV Vaccine: RPK-438

Replikun believes that a Kunjin replicon based DNA vaccine, RPK-438, would have particular utility as an RSV vaccine.

Worldwide RSV is a major public health issue. Severe respiratory tract symptoms induced by RSV are more prevalent in susceptible patient groups e.g. infants, immunocompromised people and the elderly   Collective sales of preventative RSV treatments e.g Synagis and RespiGam, surpassed US$1 billion in 2006 despite approval only extending to a small subsection of the high risk infant market.

A RPK-438 DNA vaccine program, based on the Kunjin replicon encoding an RSV antigen, would be uniquely placed to deliver a protective vaccine producing durable immunity.  A Kunjin replicon DNA vaccine would be unique because in vivo, DNA replicons give rise to a self-replicating RNA.  In preclinical studies, we have shown that compared with conventional DNA technologies, up to 1000 times less Kunjin replicon DNA vaccine is required to provide a similar immune response. more

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