SHELTON, Conn., June 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- NanoViricides,
Inc., (NYSE MKT: NNVC) (the "Company"), a pioneer in developing
anti-viral nanomedicine drugs, is pleased to announce that its
poster entitled "Novel Nanoviricides® Highly Effective Against
Varicella Zoster Virus in Cell Culture" will be presented today at
the 36th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Virology (ASV).
The poster will be presented in Poster Session II, open for viewing
from 4pm to 6pm today, Monday, June 26th, 2017. The ASV Meeting is being
hosted and held at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison, from June 24th to
28th, 2017
(https://extensionconferencecenters.uwex.edu/asv2017/).
Dr. Brian Friedrich, Senior
Virologist of the Company, is presenting the Company's work on the
evaluation of nanoviricides drug candidates for effectiveness
against the shingles virus (Varicella Zoster Virus, VZV, aka Human
HerpesVirus-3 or HHV-3) in this poster.
The two active nanoviricide® candidates presented here inhibited
VZV up to 5x better than acyclovir-sodium (the current standard of
care), and completely inhibited VZV protein production/infection in
cell culture studies. These results indicate a very high level of
anti-VZV effectiveness.
The nanoviricide candidates were non-cytotoxic even at the
highest doses in all cell lines tested. Thus it should be possible
to administer very high concentrations of the drug locally on the
skin without any deleterious effects.
Importantly, the data being presented demonstrate that the
anti-viral activity of a nanoviricide is driven by the
virus-specific ligand attached to it. Thus two of the nanoviricide
drug candidates were highly effective against VZV, whereas a third
one was not as effective. All three ligands were derived by in
silicon computer-aided drug design based on known structures of HSV
glycoprotein binding to the cellular receptor, namely the
herpesvirus entry mediator (HVEM), and thus were expected to be
active against herpes simplex viruses, and some of them were
anticipated to be active against all alphaherpesviruses. VZV is an
alphaherpesvirus.
Varicella Zoster virus (VZV) primary infection causes
chickenpox, followed by latency in ganglia and neurons, and can
reactivate decades later causing herpes zoster (shingles), usually
upon immunosuppression resulting from age, stress, or other
factors. Classical shingles presents as a painful unilateral
dermatomal vesicular rash as virus spreads to the skin through
peripheral nerves. In severe cases, VZV can reactivate in or
around the eye which can cause facial disfiguration or
blindness. There are about 1 million cases annually and the
lifetime risk of developing shingles is at least 30%. While
there is a shingles vaccine, it is not effective post-breakout, is
only ~50% effective in preventing disease, and cannot be given to
immunosuppressed people.
Topical treatment of shingles remains an unmet medical need, and
would enable high concentration of active drug locally for rapid
treatment with minimal systemic effects. NanoViricides, Inc. is
developing broad-spectrum drugs against herpesviruses for both
topical and systemic use. Our novel nanoviricide® class of
drug candidates are designed to specifically attack enveloped virus
particles by specially designed small chemical ligands and
dismantle them with the polymeric micelle which is covalently
attached. Our approach of designing ligands to mimic virus binding
sites on cellular receptors promises that a virus cannot escape the
nanoviricide drug due to mutation(s).
NanoViricides, Inc. is advancing these candidates further into
ex vivo dermal studies towards IND filing. The Company has already
initiated anti-VZV effectiveness studies for these drug candidates
in an ex vivo human skin-patch model developed by Dr. Jennifer Moffat at the State University of New York, Upstate Medical
University, Syracuse, NY.
The Company intends to release the data from these studies as they
become available.
The poster is available for viewing on the Company's website
(www.nanoviricides.com).
About NanoViricides:
NanoViricides, Inc. (www.nanoviricides.com) is a development stage
company that is creating special purpose nanomaterials for
antiviral therapy. The Company's novel nanoviricide® class of drug
candidates are designed to specifically attack enveloped virus
particles and to dismantle them. The Company is developing drugs
against a number of viral diseases including H1N1 swine flu, H5N1
bird flu, seasonal Influenza, HIV, oral and genital Herpes, viral
diseases of the eye including EKC and herpes keratitis, Hepatitis
C, Rabies, Dengue fever, and Ebola virus, among others.
This press release contains forward-looking statements that
reflect the Company's current expectation regarding future events.
Actual events could differ materially and substantially from those
projected herein and depend on a number of factors. Certain
statements in this release, and other written or oral statements
made by NanoViricides, Inc. are "forward-looking statements" within
the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and
Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. You should not
place undue reliance on forward-looking statements since they
involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors
that are, in some cases, beyond the Company's control and which
could, and likely will, materially affect actual results, levels of
activity, performance or achievements. The Company assumes no
obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking
statements for any reason, or to update the reasons actual results
could differ materially from those anticipated in these
forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes
available in the future. Important factors that could cause actual
results to differ materially from the company's expectations
include, but are not limited to, those factors that are disclosed
under the heading "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in documents filed
by the company from time to time with the United States Securities
and Exchange Commission.. Although it is not possible to
predict or identify all such factors, they may include the
following: demonstration and proof of principle in pre-clinical
trials that a nanoviricide is safe and effective; successful
development of our product candidates; our ability to seek and
obtain regulatory approvals, including with respect to the
indications we are seeking; the successful commercialization of our
product candidates; and market acceptance of our products.
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SOURCE NanoViricides, Inc.