Kimer Med's VTose: A Potential Breakthrough in Broad-Spectrum Antiviral Development
Kimer Med is developing a broad-spectrum antiviral drug that targets double-stranded RNA in infected cells, potentially stopping viral infections in their tracks.
It’s about as audacious an idea as you can find in the world of infectious disease: a broad-spectrum antiviral — a “penicillin for viruses.”The stakes are incredibly high....
All told, viral infections will account for tens of millions of deaths and trillions in economic losses over the coming decades. A drug that could treat all of them — or even a broad class of them — would be huge.
However, making any antiviral is hard enough, biochemist, former rocket scientist and software engineer, and serial entrepreneur Rick Kiessig explains. ...
The New Zealand-based startup Kimer Med...
An inspiration: The previous approach, called DRACO, and Kimer’s new candidate, called VTose...
The new design, VTose, recognizes the dsRNA and triggers a process called apoptosis, programmed death, in the infected cell — hopefully stopping the infection in its tracks.
While ambitious, a broad-spectrum antiviral based on this technique is not an impossible goal....
The dsRNA mechanism has already shown some promise....
In 2011, Todd Rider — a polymath with multiple degrees from MIT, then affiliated with MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory...
In August 2021, a year after its founding, Kimer Med licensed the final DRACO-related patent from MIT and started building their own broad-spectrum antiviral.
The new contender: Kimer’s drug is unlike most antivirals...
Large and small compounds have different advantages and drawbacks...
Targeting the host: Broad-spectrum antivirals fall into two different categories...
Instead, VTose falls into the latter category, called “host-directed antivirals” (HDAs)...
“A pre-existing repertoire of first-line, broad-acting HDAs that can be readily deployed may be beneficial in slowing the initial viral spread or in suppressing outbreaks,” Boston University researcher Vipul C. Chitalia and drug discoverer Ali H. Munawar wrote in the Journal of Translational Medicine...
VTose works by taking aim at dsRNA...
According to researchers Y. Grace Chen and Sun Hur, at Yale and Harvard respectively, dsRNA is present in the majority of viral infections...
VTose works by recognizing the long strings of dsRNA that occur when a virus tries to replicate inside a cell...
Thus far, VTose has shown success against dengue and “a handful of other viruses” in cells — a first step on a long, treacherous path to clinical trials and, if it works there, hospitals.
The challenges: Multiple hurdles stand in the way of that...
There’s good animal models for infectious disease — mice and monkeys get infected by viruses in a very similar way to humans...
While large molecules tend to be less toxic, they are more difficult and expensive to manufacture...
Of course, everything hinges on a question that can only be answered by reaching the stage DRACO never did: does it work in humans?
It’s a radical, ambitious idea — the kind that naturally draws healthy, warranted skepticism. ...
“The opportunity here is tremendous,” Kiessig says. “If we’re successful, we have an opportunity to make a change that’s as significant as broad-spectrum antibiotics were for the world.”
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