A clinical phase still needs to be initiated to confirm the innocuousness and effectiveness of this approach in humans, but as of now, the TheraVectys intranasal vaccine is attracting growing interest. “Our animal model shows that after an initial intramuscular RNA vaccination, a booster delivered nasally using Lenti-COVID has a much higher effect than a booster using messenger RNA,” Christian Brechot, Medical Director at TheraVectys explained.
Created in 2005, TheraVectys is a spin-off from the Institut Pasteur, founded by Dr. Pierre Charneau. This leading scientist discovered that it was possible to insert a sequence of interest into the HIV family of viruses. These lentiviral vectors are capable of entering dendritic cells, cells that have a fundamental role to play in the immune response. “About thirty years ago, we noticed that we could use viruses from which we removed everything that makes them harmful in order to use them as vectors and insert into them genetic sequences to be introduced into humans. This is the principle of gene therapy that we can now use for vaccination,” Christian Brechot explained.
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