WOBURN, Mass., Sept. 26, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aphios Corporation today announced that it has been awarded a Phase I Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grant from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop a generally-applicable virus and pathogen inactivation technology for human plasma units.
There are many emerging viruses such as Zika, West Nile, Ebola, SARS, potential pandemic strains of influenza (H5N1), the Mexican swine flu, bacteria, parasites and a number of potential bioterrorism pathogens such as smallpox that are of concern to the safety of the human plasma supply. Current approaches for pathogen inactivation of plasma are not always effective against a wide spectrum of human and animal viruses. These methods are sometimes encumbered by process-specific deficiencies, and often result in denaturation of sensitive plasma proteins such as Factor VIII.
According to Dr. Trevor P. Castor, Principal Investigator, “Aphios’ critical fluid inactivation (CFI) technology gives enveloped viruses, nonenveloped viruses and bacterial pathogens the ‘bends,’ inactivating them without damaging proteins and enzymes in human plasma used in transfusion medicine.” This purely physical technique does not involve the use of heat, chemicals and/or irradiation, each of which has significant drawbacks in the pathogen clearance of human plasma units. Although CFI is capable of inactivating wide classes of viruses, bacteria and parasites, it has negligible negative impact on biological integrity and potency of CFI-treated plasma units.
Dr. Castor continues “We have developed, tested and validated this process using continuous-flow laminar flow devices, and now plan to scale this technology down for processing individual units of human plasma. The potential impact of a generally-applicable physical technology for inactivating viruses and emerging pathogens in plasma units with high retention of biological activity will be very significant. This technology will be very impactful to the clearance of viruses from units of human plasma in developing countries and hot zones such as those caused by the recent Ebola outbreak in western Africa.”
About Aphios Corporation:
Aphios Corporation (www.aphios.com) is a clinical-stage, emerging growth biotechnology company developing green enabling technology platforms for improving drug discovery and manufacturing, nanotechnology drug delivery and pathogenic drug safety. Based on these enabling technology platforms, we are developing enhanced therapeutics for health maintenance and disease prevention, and the treatment of cancers and supportive care such as CINV, infectious diseases such as HIV, and Central Nervous System (CNS) disorders such as Alzheimer’s Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Pain and Opioid Addiction.
This research and development is being funded by Phase I SBIR Grant No. 1R44HL137605-01A1 from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), National Institutes of Health (NIH). The content of this press release is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of NHLBI and the NIH.
For More Information Contact:
Trevor P. Castor, Ph.D., CEO
(001) 781-932-6933
tcastor@aphios.com