Mutable Vaccines

UM File # 4181

Background
Vaccination plays an important role in preventing infectious diseases. Traditional vaccination methods employ pathogens' antigens as immunogens. The fixed nature of a traditional vaccine can be a major limitation to its success in preventing diseases caused by mutable pathogens (e.g., influenza, HIV, hepatitis C). As immune responses typically develop much more slowly than new variants proliferate, mutable pathogens can rapidly spread through populations. Currently, the strategy used to prevent infectious diseases caused by mutable pathogens is to vaccinate repeatedly, each time a new strain is identified. However, this approach may be limited due to the unpredictability of the spontaneous variants, compliance for repeated vaccination, and increased selection pressure for more virulent mutants, which may lead to pandemics.

Technology Description
Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed methods and materials for targeting the genes of antigenic determinants of mutable pathogens for somatic hypermutation. This approach facilitates the production of variant antigenic determinants and corresponding antibodies in a host, and thereby promoting an immune response against antigenic variants of mutable pathogens. In particular, the invention provides constructs that encode an antigenic determinant of a mutable pathogen linked to a promoter and to one or more hypermutability elements.

Applications
• Vaccines against mutable pathogens

Advantages
• May provide immunity against various potential variants of mutable pathogens with enhanced compliance due to decreased number of vaccinations

File Number: 4181