MucorVax – Development of a first-in-class fungal vaccine candidate

Mucormycosis caused by Rhizopus and related spore-forming fungi is a life-threatening fungal infection with a mortality of >50%, even when amputation of jaw and face are taken as last aggressive treatment option. Globally, cases of mucormycosis are on the rise due to the increasing number of people with underlying conditions (diabetes), functional immune suppression (by modern standard of care for arthritis, IBD, transplantation, etc.) and, most recently, as opportunistic co-infection following COVID-19. We will use our live-attenuated YF17D vaccine platform to express virus-like particles (VLP) displaying well-characterized Rhizopus epitopes for the purpose of active immunization. Induction of protective antibodies and vaccine efficacy will be evaluatedin several step-up animal models (including a hamster model of COVID-19) using multimodal analysis, combining classical mycological, molecular and advanced in vivo imaging approaches (BLI and micro-CT).

Keywords:vaccines, fungal infections, COVID-19, biomedical in vivo imaging, preclinical research, mucormycosis

Disciplines:Vaccinology, Mycology, Virology, Diagnostic radiology, Non-clinical studies