SHELTON, CONNECTICUT -- Tuesday, June, 26, 2018 -- NanoViricides, Inc. (NYSE MKT: NNVC) (the "Company") reports that important progress of its anti-shingles nanoviricides® drug candidates was presented at the 31st International Conference on Antiviral Research held June 11 - June 15, 2018 in Porto, Portugal,https://www.isar-icar.com/page/31icar.
The presentation showed that nanoviricide topical treatment of the cultured human skin was highly effective. In addition, the treatment was well tolerated with no apparent adverse effects. The Company is further advancing these drug candidates towards selection of a final candidate and formal safety/toxicology studies as needed for filing a Investigational New Drug Application (IND) with the US FDA. IND filing is a critical step for beginning human clinical studies.
The scientific presentation was well received. It is considered an important scientific and technological advance in the treatment of shingles. There is no treatment or cure for shingles at present, although a new vaccine has recently been introduced, in addition to an older vaccine.
The presentation demonstrated excellent effectiveness of the nanoviricides® drug candidates against shingles virus. The HerpeCide™ program drug candidates caused marked inhibition of infection by the varicella-zoster virus (VZV), the shingles virus, in human skin without overt adverse effects. The results were presented by Dongmei Liu and Dr. Jennifer Moffat of SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, NY.
VZV is restricted to human tissue and only infects and replicates in human cells and tissue. In humans, VZV causes skin lesions as a result of direct attack of the re-awakened virus released from nerve endings that infects the human skin cells.
The nanoviricides® drug candidates caused marked inhibition of VZV infection, replication and spread, over the entire time course of VZV infection in human skin cultures. This was shown by direct assay of viral infection of human skin. In addition, normal skin architecture was found to be preserved in microscopic tissue analysis of VZV-infected, nanoviricide-treated human skin, indicating excellent preliminary tolerability and safety.
The Company previously reported the collaboration with Dr. Jennifer Moffat, SUNY Upstate Medical University, an internationally recognized expert on varicella-zoster virus (VZV) infection, pathogenesis, and anti-viral agent discovery. Since VZV is restricted to human tissue, Dr. Moffat's human skin organ culture model of VZV infection is considered to be an optimal model of the natural course of shingles virus infection. It is the only model in which topically applied drugs can be evaluated for the efficacy, potency, and preliminary safety.
The Company is focusing on these studies in Dr. Moffat's lab as a critical step in the selection of final clinical drug development candidates for safety and toxicology studies with the goal of an IND submission to the FDA for the topical treatment of shingles in humans in the very near future.
The International Conference on Antiviral Research is an annual conference attracting chemists, biologists and clinicians. It is hosted by the International Society for Antiviral Research (ISAR), an internationally recognized organization for scientists involved in basic, applied, and clinical aspects of antiviral research.
About NanoViricidesFDA refers to US Food and Drug Administration. EMA refers to the European Union’s office of European Medical Agency.