Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp (NASDAQ:TNXP) has announced the enrolment of the first patient in its observational COV-LOGIC (TNX-C001) study of cellular (T-cell) and humoral immune responses to the COVID-19 virus in participants that are asymptomatic or have recovered from the SARS-CoV-2.
Tonix collaborating with Southern Research on COV-LOGIC Study
The study is part of the ongoing and wider research partnership between the company and Southern Research for the development and conducting of animal trials of the TNX-1800 vaccine candidate that is a live replicating has attenuated vaccine against COVID-19.
Seth Lederman, the company’s CEO, stated that the commencement of enrollment was a huge milestone for the company as the data collected from asymptomatic and recovered COVID-19 volunteers in the study will be vital. Results will inform the vaccine development process on the safest way of providing the same immune response that others got after recovering from the virus. Lederman said that the company’s goal with its vaccine candidate is to come up with a well-tolerated vaccine that produces long-lasting and strong immunity, which will be deployed broadly and rapidly.
Currently, the protective immune response features of SARS-CoV-2 are unknown but considering this is a virus, it is possible the T cell response, especially T Helper Type 1, will be vital or even dominant in protection against illness from SARS-CoV-2.
TNX-1800 based on live replication of horsepox virus
TNX-1800 is a modified horsepox virus vaccine that has been designed to show the Spike protein of the coronavirus and elicit a T cell response. The live replication of horsepox can be engineered to show foreign genes and has been exploited in vaccine development because of large exogenous DNA inserts packaging capacity and accurate virus-specific exogenous gene insert expression control.
The company evaluates TNX-1800 in an observational multi-cohort sample collection trial designed for the collection of blood and nasopharyngeal swabs from asymptomatic and recovered individuals. The study seeks to analyze the T cell and antibody titers responses of the individuals towards some SARS-CoV-2 proteins and also detect SARS-CoV-2 RNA that could be persistent in nasopharynx during sampling.
