SPOR-COV: Prophylaxis of COVID-19 using Innate Immunity

The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates the need for a rapid response to a global public health emergency. Vaccination is ideal but, as is now apparent, a vaccine for an unknown disease cannot be produced in time to avert a major socio-economic disaster. Alternative strategies have been considered but so far have received little attention. One of these is that of immunomodulation, that is, enhancing our immune system such that we can prevent infection. More specifically, we present here an approach that stimulates our innate immune system. Innate immunity is our 1st-line of defence against pathogens and there are a number of ways this can be enhanced. In this SPOR-COV project we will use inactive bacterial spores which, in published studies, have been shown able to prevent complete protection to influenza infection. Our approach is attractive because our product can be produced easily, at low cost and can be stored indefinitely at ambient temperature without a supply cold chain. Thus, large quantities of product could be manufactured and stockpiled for future pandemics whether this be COVID-19, influenza or other respiratory viral infections. This product would enable a rapid response and contribute to preventing the devastating impact of a pandemic on both public health and income.

Our approach is led by two UK companies who are responsible for the initial discovery with influenza and who have the expertise to take this forward to clinical evaluation. Working with virology experts at University of Liverpool we will assess the ability of our product to prevent COVID-19 as well as influenza infection. We will conduct studies to confirm that the product is devoid of toxicity at therapeutic, clinically relevant dose levels and complete studies necessary to enable human safety studies (Phase 1). Our intention is to ensure that this approach is available for subsequent waves of COVID-19 (should they occur) but also in preparedness for future pandemics.