Invention Summary:
Rutgers scientists have developed methods to produce and purify the ectodomain of HCV E2, a critical structural protein of the virus that has potential to serve as a vaccine candidate to prevent HCV infection. Efforts to study HCV, and to develop vaccines, have been impaired in part by the inability to produce sufficient quantities of high quality protein due to the complexity of the mature form of E2. The technology developed at Rutgers has overcome this limitation and may provide the critical step towards developing a variety of therapeutic options including vaccines against HCV, peptide mimetics and possibly serve as a novel target for other therapeutic modalities.
Market Applications:
- Therapeutics
- Prophylactics
- Drug Discovery
- Vaccines
- Hepatitis C Target
- Peptide Mimetics
Advantages:
The technology has produced protein capable of binding CD 81 receptors and reacting with patient sera. Importantly, the protein is highly functional as shown by its ability to decrease viral entry into cells, a requisite step toward HCV infection.
Intellectual Property & Development Status:
Patent pending Methods are claimed to express functional E2 protein. The production of milligram quantities have been enabled.
