The Technology
Infectious diseases are typically transmitted by viruses. These are sub-diffraction-limit particles which typically range in size from 50-150 nm. The virus’s small size and highly infectious nature makes it very difficult to screen for effective drugs in a high-throughput or timely manner. To address this problem the v-particles were developed. The v-particles are virus-like particles on the micron-size scale, which display the protein component of the virus capsid which is responsible for binding to the host cell (e.g. S-protein for SARS-nCov-2). Using the v-particles engineered to mimic SARS-nCov-2, it was demonstrated using a standard high-throughput flow-cytometry assay that the particles bind the hACE2 receptor with high affinity, and that they do not bind a non-specific target. Due to the high-affinity to the receptor, using the same assay it could also be shown that a known S-protein inhibitor can reduce the functionality of the v-Particles thus demonstrating the particles utility for detecting novel drug-targets for known infectious diseases
Advantages
- Anti-viral Drug screening platform
Applications and Opportunities
- Novel drug-targets detection for known infectious diseases.
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