Atlanta, GA, Sept. 15, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- GeoVax Labs, Inc. (OTCQB: GOVX), a biotechnology company developing human immunotherapies and vaccines against infectious diseases and cancer, announced today that its Chief Scientific Officer Emeritus, Harriet L. Robinson, PhD, is an invited speaker at the 20th annual World Vaccine Congress, September 28th to October 1st. Dr. Robinson will speak on September 28th at 2:55 p.m. EDT in the session “Why the World Needs HIV Vaccines”. The title of her presentation is “Non-Neutralizing Antibody and HIV Vaccines, Clinical and Preclinical Experience”.
GeoVax’s preventive HIV vaccine candidate, GOVX-B11, is based on the use of DNA for priming and the company’s proprietary Modified Vaccinia Ankara virus (MVA) for boosting; both of which express non-infectious virus-like-particles displaying the HIV envelope protein that is the target for protective antibody. Dr. Robinson will report studies in rhesus macaques addressing the addition of gp120 protein boosts to the MVA boost to enhance the induction of antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC). The MVA+protein boosts elicited hyperimmune levels of Ab. These high levels of antibody showed prozones (reduced lytic activity at low serum dilutions) for ADCC. Challenge of the vaccinated macaques with SHIV (a simian-human immunodeficiency virus) showed reductions in post infection viremia. These, however, were limited to regimens that induced ADCC with modest or no prozone activity.
“The recognition that prozones can affect the efficacy of ADCC is a new concept for HIV vaccine development,” said Dr. Robinson. “Up to this time, the effort in the field has been placed on eliciting the highest possible antibody responses, the condition that applies for protection by neutralizing antibody. Non-neutralizing antibody, such as ADCC, however, is different from neutralizing antibody in requiring immune complexes to activate the low affinity receptors that mediate protective non-neutralizing functions. Excess antibody can reduce immune complex formation thus reducing protective non-neutralizing activity.”
About GeoVax
GeoVax Labs, Inc. is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing human vaccines against infectious diseases and cancer using a novel proprietary vaccine platform (GV-MVA-VLPTM). On this platform, MVA, a large virus capable of carrying several vaccine antigens, expresses proteins that assemble into VLP immunogens within the person receiving the vaccine (in vivo). The production of VLPs in the person being vaccinated can mimic virus production in a natural infection, stimulating both the humoral and cellular arms of the immune system to recognize, prevent, and control the target infection. GV-MVA-VLPTM derived vaccines have elicited durable immune responses in the host similar to a live-attenuated virus, while providing the safety characteristics of a replication-defective vector.
GeoVax’s current development programs are focused on preventive vaccines against COVID-19, HIV, Zika, hemorrhagic fever viruses (Ebola, Sudan, Marburg, and Lassa), and malaria, as well as therapeutic vaccines against multiple cancers. The Company has developed preventive HIV vaccine candidate (GOVX-B11) for the clade B subtype of HIV prevalent in the Americas, Western Europe, Japan, and Australia and the clade C subtype prevalent in Africa and India. GOVX-B11 is scheduled for inclusion in an upcoming human clinical trial managed by the HVTN with the support of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). GeoVax’s clade B HIV vaccine is also part of collaborative efforts to develop an immunotherapy as a functional cure for HIV.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this document are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. These statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Actual results may differ materially from those included in these statements due to a variety of factors, including whether: GeoVax can develop and manufacture its vaccines with the desired characteristics in a timely manner, GeoVax's vaccines will be safe for human use, GeoVax's vaccines will effectively prevent targeted infections in humans, GeoVax’s vaccines will receive regulatory approvals necessary to be licensed and marketed, GeoVax raises required capital to complete vaccine development, there is development of competitive products that may be more effective or easier to use than GeoVax's products, GeoVax will be able to enter into favorable manufacturing and distribution agreements, and other factors, over which GeoVax has no control. GeoVax assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements and does not intend to do so. More information about these factors is contained in GeoVax's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including those set forth at "Risk Factors" in GeoVax's Form 10-K.
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