New data on COVID-19From SEDAR ...
Additional Virus Targets*
Theralase® executed a Sponsored Research Agreement (“SRA”) with the University of Manitoba (“UM”) Medical Microbiology department in 3Q2020 to commence development of a coronavirus vaccine utilizing Theralase®’s patented and proprietary PDCs.
The primary objective of the SRA was to investigate the efficacy of Theralase®’s lead PDC to destroy a variety of viruses; including: H1N1 Influenza, Zika and coronaviruses (Biological Safety Level (“BSL”) 2).
The secondary objective was to optimize the concentration of PDC required, the activation methodology and how to potentially administer the treatment to humans to be used as a vaccine (prevention of a patient from contracting COVID-19) (BSL-3). The Company’s PDC technology was effective in the destruction of H1N1 Influenza and Zika viruses at low nanomolar concentrations and the research and development was expanded to include coronavirus (BSL-2). Note: COVID-19 is caused by coronavirus (BSL-3), not coronavirus (BSL-2).
A rapid test was established to measure coronavirus destruction and using this new assay the Theralase® PDC technology was able to destroy coronavirus (BSL-2) with drug doses 5 times lower than what was used to kill H1N1 Influenza and Zika viruses. These drug doses are significantly lower than those used by the Company to treat cancers and are therefore considered safe for human use. All coronaviruses are highly similar in their structure and these new results suggest that Theralase®’s proposed vaccine could be highly effective against the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for COVID-19.
Further studies have shown that the human coronavirus (“CoV”) appears to be much more sensitive to the action of the activated Theralase® PDC vaccine, with a dose as low of 3.3 nM required to inactivate 50%, whereas; 9.2 nM was required to inactivate the same amount of H1N1 Influenza virus and 12 nM was required to inactivate the same amount of Zika virus. The amount of PDC required to inactivate 99.9% of each virus are 61 nM for CoV, 322 nM for Zika virus and 497 nM for H1N1 Influenza virus, respectively; thus, the Theralase® PDC is 3 to 5 times more effective against CoV compared to the other tested viruses. The Theralase® compound is also effective without activation, but on average, its activation results in a 4.2 fold increase in Zika virus inactivation, a 12 fold increase in H1N1 Influenza inactivation and an 18.7 fold increase in CoV inactivation.