In August 2024 Phylex Biosciences announced the publication of a preprint presenting research into the immunogenicity of its Nipah mRNA nanoparticle vaccine candidate. The paper, co-authored with CDC scientists, found that the vaccine elicited a “robust” neutralising antibody response in mice. Neutralising titers were “markedly higher” than other Nipah vaccine designs and demonstrated “efficient neutralising even with a single dose”.
Nipah virus
Nipah virus (NiV) is a zoonotic virus that causes human infections ranging from asymptomatic to acute respiratory infection or fatal encephalitis. There are no drugs or vaccines approved for Nipah virus infection, and WHO considers Nipah virus a priority disease for focused research and development efforts.
Phylex’s technology
Phylex states that “recent progress in computational analysis and artificial intelligence deep learning” enable the design of antigens that elicit specific classes of neutralising antibodies. The Nipah vaccine antigen is based on the head domain of the G attachment protein of the virus, displaying “most epitopes of neutralising antibodies”. In virus neutralisation assays, the vaccine-elicited sera had neutralisation titers that were “3-fold the average titers” of 14 individuals who survived Nipah virus infection in Bangladesh. The antigen is displayed on a self-assembling nanoparticle “directly encoded” by mRNA.
“The pursued advantages of our nanoparticle vaccines are longer protection, protection against viral dissemination and associated neuropathology, and reduction of the number of challenges necessary for immunisation.”
Pascal Brandys, co-founder and CEO of Phylex Biosciences, is “grateful” to the CDC co-authors for their contribution to the vaccine assessment.
“The results confirm the strong advantage of our mRNA vaccine encoding for a highly immunogenic nanoparticle, as compared with a variety of other technologies.”
Brandys states that the vaccine “combines the advantages of mRNA for speed of manufacturing and development and a nanoparticle for efficacy after one dose”.
“We will aggressively pursue the clinical development of our vaccine candidate to initiate clinical trials with exposed individuals on a compassionate bases and save lives as soon as possible.”
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