First H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccine, Replikins-Based, Is Ready Now For Testing Worldwide

[AlaskaDenise]

Hat tip to Rocky
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Article Date: 05 May 2009 - 1:00 PDT

A synthetic peptide H1N1 vaccine is available now for testing worldwide, from Replikins Ltd. The company has developed the vaccine based on the same Replikins peptide technology which provided the surprise advance warning one year ago that the current H1N1 outbreak/pandemic was on its way (http://www.replikins.com). A unique advantage of the Replikins vaccine is its rapid availability; the WHO, CDC and others have stated that conventionally developed H1N1 vaccines will not be ready for many months. This key advantage is based on the company's ability to swiftly identify, and make molecular vaccines based on, key sub-sequences of the virus genome that are critical to its rapid replication. In contrast with the decades-old production techniques used for most vaccines, the company also takes full advantage of modern peptide synthesis techniques to allow rapid production of its vaccines.

In April 2008, Replikins Ltd. announced the likelihood of H1N1 outbreaks based on the company's patented Replikin Count(TM) genomics technology, which examines specific regions in virus genes that have been linked with past epidemics. The company's chairman, Dr. Samuel Bogoch, found that some of these regions have been conserved for decades. In H1N1 last year the company detected the highest concentrations of these specific regions ever seen, except for those from the 1918 flu pandemic which killed tens of millions of people. To date, no other method has been able to predict whether and what strain of a given organism will threaten a human or animal population.

The same proprietary technology, based on genomic Replikin Count(TM), which permitted one year of advance warning that H5N1 with higher human lethality would strike in 2007, and that H1N1 would strike this year, has been used to manufacture synthetic conserved Replikin vaccines against both these influenza strains, Replikins H5N1 Bird Flu Vaccine(TM) and Replikins H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccine(TM), as well as a Replikins PanFlu Vaccine(TM).

The company is producing the new H1N1 vaccine product after achieving independent test results of the safety and efficacy of its synthetic vaccines against two viruses in two different host populations: the lethal Taura virus in shrimp populations, and the avian flu (H5N1) in chicken populations. The company's closely related Replikins vaccine against H5N1 avian flu, produced in a 7-day period, was recently tested at the University of Georgia and shown to block H5N1 virus entry, replication, and excretion in chickens (paper submitted for publication).

Source: Replikins Ltd

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/148749.php

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: First H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccine, Replikins-Based, Is Ready Now For Testing Worldwide

If you read Replikins news site here, at a little less than 1/4 through the list of articles, they have an H9N2 chart with explanation stating "H9N2 may be an alternate candidate to H5N1 for the next influenza pandemic." as IOH & Mamabird reported here at FT.

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[AlaskaDenise]

Re: First H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccine, Replikins-Based, Is Ready Now For Testing Worldwide

The 2008 article referenced above:

H1N1 Influenza Virus with Highest Replikin Count™ Since the 1918 Pandemic Identified in the U.S. and Austria (April 7, 2008)

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Boston, MA (PRWeb) April 7, 2008 -- Replikins, Ltd. has found that the Replikin Count™ of the H1N1 strain of influenza virus has recently increased to 7.6 (plus/minus 1.4), its highest level since the 1918 H1N1 pandemic (p value less than 0.001). A rising Replikin Count of a particular influenza strain, indicating rapid replication of the virus, is an early warning which has been followed consistently by an outbreak of the specific strain. The current increase appears to be specific to H1N1; there was a concurrent 80% decline in the Replikin Count of H3N2, for instance.

The current H1N1 appears to be rapidly replicating simultaneously in the U.S. and Austria. It may succeed H5N1 as the leading candidate for the next expected overdue pandemic. However, the same virus replikin structures detected by FluForecast® software in all three previous pandemics, namely 1918 H1N1, 1957 H2N2, and 1968 H3N2, as well as in H5N1, have not yet been detected in the currently evolving H1N1.

There is evidence that many factors, including virus structure, host receptivity, and the environment, together with infectivity and rapid replication, need to converge for a pandemic to occur. For H5N1, the high human mortality rate, which peaked at over 80% in 2006-07 in Indonesia, as well as current low infectivity, both appear to limit H5N1's ability to produce a pandemic. Furthermore, the H5N1 rapid replication cycle which began in 1996 now appears to be over. The H5N1 virus produced less than 300 World Health Organization confirmed deaths over the past 10 years.

On the other hand, H1N1, with an estimated human mortality rate of only 2.5 to 10%, but with much higher infectivity, produced an estimated 50 million deaths in the 1918 pandemic. A number of countermeasures exist today which did not exist in 1918, however. Among these is Replikins' ability to manufacture synthetic vaccines based on current sequences, with a seven day production turnaround.

http://www.replikins.com/release.html#article26

[JetStuuby]

Re: First H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccine, Replikins-Based, Is Ready Now For Testing Worldwide

I seem to remember Replikins being bumped off the site some years ago as they were not considered a credible organisation. Has that changed?

My apologies to the Replikins if I am mistaken in this impression, but from memory they appeared to simply report trends rather than provide actual insight into vaccine, or other treatments.

JS

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: First H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccine, Replikins-Based, Is Ready Now For Testing Worldwide

As I remember, their techniques were discounted here.

But there's no better vindication than success.

I still don't begin to understand how they evaluate their counts, but maybe it's been refined.

As to the desirability of their vaccine, time will tell if there is interest. They still need human clinical trials.

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[mixin]

Re: First H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccine, Replikins-Based, Is Ready Now For Testing Worldwide

We've had a number of discussions regarding Replikins over the last couple of years. Their predicitons are still here to follow.

They weren't discounted; just questioned.

The following is from a post here and it seems that there should be research papers to back up their claims about the peptides, etc. Their technology was presented at the International Bird Flu Summit last fall http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/sho...ight=replikins

The key to this predictive technology is a new class of structural virus peptides that have been shown to be involved in the chemistry of rapid replication. The Doctors Bogoch called them "Replikins", and they are strictly defined by the concentration of lysine and histidine residues and the spacing between them. To demonstrate the correlation between the concentration of replikins and the lethality of influenza virus outbreaks, Replikins Ltd. has developed software called FluForecast?, which counts the number of replikins in the sequences of each strain of flu virus across the years - and thanks to the data in public databases like PubMed, we now can track as far as 90 years back.

What Replikins found is that there's a strong correlation between the concentration of replikins and the lethality of an influenza virus outbreak. This allows us to determine in advance, using newly designed software, which viruses have the highest replikin concentrations - and are thus poised to become the most lethal outbreak.

Replikin peptides are not distributed equally throughout the virus genome, but are concentrated in a specific area of the genome designated the Replikin Peak Gene (RPGene). If you graph the replikin counts of the over 14,000 strain-specific RPGenes with lethal outbreaks of particular influenza strains since 1918, you get this: (graph)...

[Thornton]

Re: First H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccine, Replikins-Based, Is Ready Now For Testing Worldwide

In a quick search on PubMed and Google with Replikin and FDA, plus a review of their web site, I cannot find any FDA approved product, or any human trial of any product by this company. They offer insitutions to partner with them for clinical trials, but even with fast track protocols set up for pandemic vaccines I cannot find any active projects.

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: First H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccine, Replikins-Based, Is Ready Now For Testing Worldwide

The current new H1N1 epidemic should make the general public likely to take away a sense of security from any news proposing a fast vaccine. So if those proposed vaccines are comparatively highly experimental, that fact needs to be known.

Thanks to Mixin and Thornton for providing further clarity to this story.

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[Salinas]

Re: First H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccine, Replikins-Based, Is Ready Now For Testing Worldwide

I seem to remember Replikins being bumped off the site some years ago as they were not considered a credible organisation. Has that changed?

My apologies to the Replikins if I am mistaken in this impression, but from memory they appeared to simply report trends rather than provide actual insight into vaccine, or other treatments.

JS

pls... need help to clear few things:

1. Replikins is linked somehow to Oncolab Inc and to other companies, like Teck Corporation Canada and Norman Keevil, Drexel Burnham Lambert etc ... like a strange chain, and every were is the name of dr. Dr. Samuel Bogoch; the patents are on his name .

2. I am used to look for research papers .. but I cannot find a part of the papers listed as being Dr. Samuel Bogoch work ( as listed here ), especially the new ones.

He's not listed on Boston School of Medicine site as mentioned in his site ( being with BSM in the last 30 years) , no traces of him at Harvard University. some of the old papers are in the journals .. but the new papers I couldn't find them. It's like he died and was resuscitated somehow.

The paper number 2 on that list is on pubmed .. but with a different author.

What's going on?

[sharon sanders]

Re: First H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccine, Replikins-Based, Is Ready Now For Testing Worldwide

I do not know, but they joined FT today so maybe they will post a response on this thread.