DOR BioPharma in CRADA for ricin toxin vaccine research

New Jersey, USA-based DOR BioPharma has entered into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research to provide additional means to characterize the immunogenic protein subunit component of RiVax, the company's preventive vaccine against ricin toxin. The CRADA will be carried out at the Division of Biochemistry at WRAIR and will encompass basic studies to reveal the underlying protein structure that is important in inducing human immune responses to ricin toxin. Ricin toxin is an easy to manufacture toxin that poses a serious threat as a bioweapon, primarily by inhalation, the company says.

Some of the features that are critical to induce protective immune responses by vaccination with RiVax, says the firm, include structural determinants in the core and the surface of the protein. The purpose of the CRADA is to obtain data to correlate protein structure with induction of protective immunity and long-term stability of the protein. These studies will involve comparison to structures of similar natural and recombinant proteins. RiVax induces antibodies that appear primarily in the blood of animals and humans.