T Cell-Based Viral Vector Platform

Our unique T cell based viral vector platform, which is currently being used to develop a vaccine for HIV, has the potential to be more broadly applicable to infectious disease, oncology and beyond.

Human cytomegalovirus is a ubiquitous herpes virus estimated to have infected 50%-99% of people worldwide. HCMV is the most potent inducer of an immune response of any known human virus eliciting a potent T cell response which includes robust effector memory T cells that can circulate throughout the body. HCMV causes a persistent infection which facilitates ongoing immune stimulation to maintain a durable T cell response. HCMV-based vaccines have the potential to generate T cells that identify HIV infected cells in ways that the virus does not know how to subvert.

In addition, through “immune programming” we can engineer HCMV to induce different responses tailored to specific pathogens. If data from our ongoing Phase 1 trial evaluating VIR-1388 supports our unique approach, it could be a springboard for the entire T cell based viral vector platform for a range of diseases.