SBIR Phase I: Novel COVID-19 Dual-function Therapeutic/Vaccine Product

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project is to develop a new class of dual-function therapeutic/vaccine products that can prevent viruses from entering cells (therapeutic effect) while also stimulating immunity to viruses (vaccine effect). The proposal has immediate impact in that it seeks to synthesize a compound that can be used to treat patients with COVID-19, caused by SARS CoV-2. Specifically, the novel solution both prevents SARS-CoV-2 from entering human lung cells and stimulates immune cells, such as dendritic cells, resulting in immunization. The proposed solution is the only one that could be given to infected individuals as both a therapy and a vaccine. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project seeks to develop a new class of dual-function therapeutic/vaccine solutions. The proposed work is to synthesize a compound with multiple copies of a peptide from SARS-CoV-2 spike protein that could block the virus from entering host cells. It will also contain multiple copies of a peptide that could direct excess product to immune cells to serve as a vaccine to induce T cell responses and neutralizing antibodies. The multiple copies of the peptides are synthesized on a multivalent backbone using patented chemistry. This unique synthetic scheme allows for the rapid production of such multivalent conjugates, but proof-of-principle supporting the biologic activities of the proposed products is missing. The proposed studies will accomplish the synthesis and characterization of the dual-function compounds, resulting in selection of a lead candidate for subsequent development. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.