Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Alnylam collaborate to develop microRNA-based attenuated influenza viruses

Mount Sinai School of Medicine has completed an exclusive option agreement with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. a leading RNAi therapeutics company, for intellectual property related to RNAi applications in vaccine development. These new applications of RNAi technology define opportunities for the advancement of novel vaccines in infectious disease.

Alnylam is collaborating with the laboratory of Benjamin tenOever, PhD, Assistant Professor of Microbiology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, on the development of microRNA-based attenuated influenza viruses which offer the potential for use as improved live attenuated influenza vaccines. In a paper published last year in the journal Nature Biotechnology, Dr. tenOever and colleagues generated a live, attenuated influenza virus engineered with microRNA target sequences that provide attenuated replication in mammals without impaired growth characteristics during vaccine production. Specifically, microRNA-based attenuation of H1N1 and H5N1 influenza viruses resulted in novel viral antigens that conferred protection in mice from lethal flu infection. This technology is applicable to any virus amenable to recombinant production, and allows for the generation of viruses which can be efficiently propagated in one species and then used as live attenuated vaccines in another.

"Mount Sinai School of Medicine believes that its microRNA technology has the potential to transform vaccine development," said Dennis S. Charney, M.D., Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs of The Mount Sinai Medical Center. "We look forward to collaborating with Alnylam to further advance Dr. tenOever's work with live attenuated influenza vaccines with the goal of bringing novel and improved products to market."

"RNAi technology has become a game changer across most of biomedical research, and its applications in the discovery and development of vaccine products are certainly no exception. We are pleased to have secured this intellectual property by obtaining key vaccine-related patents, which describe exciting opportunities for novel RNAi-based vaccine products," said Stuart Pollard, PhD, Vice President, Scientific and Business Strategy at Alnylam.