Domestic third-generation HPV vaccine development breakthrough

Source: Pharmaceutical Economics

The Xia Ning Shao team of Xiamen University adopted the emerging structural vaccinology method to obtain a third-generation cervical cancer vaccine that covers only 20 types of HPV virus types, requiring only seven types of virus particles, to develop a cover for all high-risk types of HPV. The third-generation cervical cancer vaccine laid the key technical foundation and knocked on the third-generation cervical cancer vaccine development. Recently, relevant research results were published in the international authoritative journal Nature & Communication.

Cervical cancer is mainly caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. The traditional way to improve the preventive effect of cervical cancer vaccines is to increase the variety of HPV-like virus particles, thereby preventing more HPV virus types "one-on-one". The existing first- and second-generation cervical cancer vaccines use "viral-like particles" similar to HPV natural virus particles as vaccine antigens, and the nine-valent vaccine can prevent about 90% of cervical cancer, but still with another Nearly 10% of cervical cancer-related HPV types were not covered. At the same time, if the third-generation cervical cancer vaccine is developed in the traditional way, it will face problems such as large doses of vaccination, large potential side reactions, and difficulty in production process.

The Xia Ning Shao research team used the emerging structural vaccinology method to develop a third-generation cervical cancer vaccine design. They compared the structural characteristics of HPV virions and the genetic relationship of the virus in the evolution process, and found that HPV virions with close kinship have a common skeleton and different external details and features, and then through structural design. An HPV-like virus particle has the external details of three HPV virus particles, and obtains a third-generation cervical cancer vaccine that can cover twenty HPV virus types by only seven kinds of virus particles. For the first time, an HPV-like virus particle has the function of simultaneously protecting three HPV virus types, and the type of virus-like particles required for the vaccine antigen is reduced while increasing the vaccine to prevent the virus type.

Wantai Bio is a high-tech enterprise engaged in the research and development of biological diagnostic reagents and vaccines, and is controlled by Yangshengtang Group. Since its establishment in 1991, it has developed into an important production base for AIDS diagnostic reagents in the Asia-Pacific region, China's immunodiagnostic reagents and the National Bio-High-tech Industrialization Demonstration Engineering Base. The company's hepatitis E vaccine product is the world's only hepatitis E vaccine, with 7 domestic invention patents and 30 invention patents abroad. The cervical cancer vaccine product Xin Kening, which was jointly developed with the Xia Ning Shao team, is the first cervical cancer vaccine in China to complete the phase III clinical trial. The launch of the vaccine will make China the third country to have autonomous supply of cervical cancer vaccines after the United States and the United Kingdom.