VLP Platform

Saiba Animal Health’s Principle

Saiba Animal Health produces tailor-made vaccines to target selected diseases. Our vaccines are virally shaped nanoparticles, also called virus-like particles (VLPs), with copies of any selected disease causing molecule chemically linked to the VLP surface.

Upon immunization, the VLP building block of the vaccine tricks the immune system into believing it is under viral attack, which results in a strong immune response (i.e. production of antibodies) against the disease causing molecule displayed on the VLP surface. The antibodies induced by vaccination bind the disease-associated target molecule in the patient and thereby ameliorate or prevent the disease.

Saiba Animal Health’s VLP platform can be used to develop vaccines against chronic and infectious diseases.

Virus-like particle based vaccines

VLP-based vaccines are widely used in humans and have proven to be highly effective with excellent safety profiles. These include the licensed human papilloma virus vaccines Cervarix® and Gardasil® (GSK and MSD) and the Hepatitis B virus vaccine Engerix® (GSK). A VLP-based conjugate vaccine (CAD106) for preventing Alzheimer’s disease in humans is currently being tested in pivotal studies (Novartis). We are bringing this technology to our animal companions.

Related literature

Bachmann, M.F., and M.R. Dyer. 2004. Therapeutic vaccination for chronic diseases: A new class of drugs in sight. Nature Reviews: Drug Discovery 3:1-8.

Bachmann, M.F., and G.T. Jennings. 2010. Vaccine delivery: a matter of size, geometry, kinetics and molecular patterns. Nature Reviews: Immunology 10:787-796.

Bachmann MF, Whitehead P. (2013) Active immunotherapy for chronic diseases. Vaccine 31:1777-84

Zeltins A, Bachmann MF. (2017) Incorporation of tetanus-epitope into virus-like particles achieves vaccine responses even in older recipients in models of psoriasis, Alzheimer’s and cat allergy. NPJ Vaccines. 23;2:30