Aphios
Corporation Awarded National Institutes of Health SBIR Grant
to Develop Novel Anti-Smallpox Therapeutics
September
09, 2003
— Aphios
Corporation has been awarded a Phase I Small Business Innovative
Research (SBIR) grant for the “Development of Novel
Anti-Smallpox Therapeutics from Marine Microorganisms,”
from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative
Medicine (NCCAM), National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Smallpox
infection is characterized by a high fever and rash; the
mortality rate is very high, approximately 30%. Person to
person infection usually occurs by the transfer of aerosols
or fluid droplets. The vast vaccination effort between 1967
and 1972 led to the worldwide eradication of Smallpox in
1977. Currently, viral stocks of Smallpox are restricted
to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia and
the State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology
in Novosibirsk, Russia; reputedly, Smallpox may be available
on the black market to anyone with the correct price. The
terrorist events of September 11th, 2001 and subsequent
criminal anthrax exposures have increased the awareness
of Smallpox’s use as a biological weapon, and steps
are being taken to prepare for the possibility of an attack.
Smallpox is considered a “Category A priority pathogen”
by the NIH and Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
While the US has sufficient vaccines onhand to vaccinate
the entire population, there are concerns about the logistical
implementation of such a plan and the timing between expsoure
and efficacy. There are also concerns regarding potential
adverse side-effects for the elderly, sick and immuno-compromised
patients. Additionally, there have even been significant
concerns about the risks versus benefits of preemptive vaccination
of healthcare workers. Dr. Trevor Castor, CEO of Aphios
Corporation, states that “Some of these concerns can
be addessed by developing safe and effective anti-Smallpox
therapeutics that can be stockpiled.” Aphios plans
to discover and develop novel anti-Smallpox therapeutics
through the screening of its unique library of marine molecules
against Vaccinia variola, a less virulent surrogate pox
virus, in its Biohazard Safety Level 3 (BSL-3) facility.
In
its adjacent Biohazard Safety Level 2 (BSL-2) laboratory,
in collaboration with leading research and oceanographic
institutions, Aphios has established a library of unique
marine microorganisms from diverse environments, including
deep-sea sediments to shallow water mangrove swamps, tropical
waters to temperate oceans, hydrothermal vents as well as
normal saline conditions to hypersaline ponds. The microbes
are fermented in different media designed to maximize the
diversity of secondary metabolites being generated. The
biodiversity of Aphios’ marine microorganism library
is further enhanced by selectively extracting secondary
metabolites with proprietary and patented supercritical
fluid microbial cell disruption and fractionation technologies.
Aphios
(www.aphios.com) is
a biopharmaceutical company that is developing enhanced
natural therapeutics for health maintenance and the treatment
of human diseases with a focus on infectious diseases, cancer
and quality-of-life medicines. Aphios’ product pipeline
includes therapeutics from medicinal plants and marine organisms,
and improved drug delivery formulations of small anticancer
molecules as well as large protein macromolecules and enzymes
that are crucial for sustaining life and good health.
###
