Arizona Based Biotech Company Finds Preliminary Success Developing an Intranasal COVID-19 Vaccine Alternative

PHOENIX, Oct. 22, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Sotira, a Phoenix based biotech company is proud to announce the preliminary findings of preclinical safety and efficacy studies for its groundbreaking, patent-pending vaccine alternative that has shown in on-going preclinical testing to attenuate COVID-19 infection. Named KEPTIDE™ Covid, this cutting-edge therapy holds the promise for complete attenuation of SARS-CoV2 entry in Kidney and Lung cells. According to a recent report by Sotira's Dr. Avik Roy and Dr. Carl G. Gottschalk report KEPTIDE™ Covid is a chemically modified biomolecule that displays a remarkable specificity to ACE-2 receptor and also mitigates viral entry in vitro in Primate kidney cells even after 8 hours of infection. Their claim was confirmed with two independent research collaboration with Northwestern University and University of Illinois at Chicago confocal imaging facility.

According to Dr. Roy, the preliminary findings show that KEPTIDE™ Covid's "unique formulation also demonstrates a robust absorption through nasal mucosa and extremely longer half-life in lungs when applied through intranasal route." In addition, their mouse study, based on the Institutional Animal Care guideline under the supervision of a certified veterinarian, reveals that the chronic administration of KEPTIDE™ Covid through intranasal pathway is absolutely safe and has no off-target effects. Some additional highlights of their claims include:

1. The preventive action of KEPTIDE™ Covid was assessed in Coppe laboratory, a CDC-approved lab that routinely handles Wuhan-standard SARS-CoV2 virus. The report made by Gottschalk et al. suggest that KEPTIDE™ Covid is 15-fold stronger in preventing Wuhan SARS-CoV2 entry in primate Kidney cells compared to vehicle treated group. This dramatic result was confirmed in multiple experiments blinded to the investigators and visualized independently at University of Illinois at Chicago confocal core facility.
2. Blinded, independent experiments completed at Northwestern's KECK School of Medicine's High Throughput Screening laboratory using the gold-standard cell-free biolayer interferometry (BLItz) and fluorescence polarization (FP) assays were adopted to evaluate the affinity of KEPTIDE™ Covid with ACE-2 receptor.
3. KEPTIDE™ Covid is targeted novel therapeutic aimed to attenuate SARS-CoV2. On-going  blinded preclinical in vivo studies using humanized ACE-2 receptor transgenic mice indicate the mechanism of KEPTIDE™ Covid is based in its specific interaction with the Human ACE-2 receptor; the documented dominant mechanism responsible for SARS-CoV2 viral entry into human upper and lower respiratory epithelial tissue.

Please follow their recent pre-print publication at Cold Spring Harbor library journal (BioRxiv)

About Sotira
Founded by Arizona businessman and entrepreneur James F. Keating, in partnership with Dr. Avik Roy and Dr. Carl G. Gottschalk, Sotira grew out of a desire to use cutting-edge molecular therapy to treat and prevent diseases ranging from blood disorders to pain and inflammation.  When the COVID-19 pandemic struck Sotira's team set out to craft a targeted intervention that, unlike a vaccine or existing medical treatment, was specifically designed to prevent the virus from attaching to ACE-2 receptors in your mid-respiratory area. This blocking mechanism is designed to prevent the spread and infection of the virus into the rest of the body.  In a recent publication of the science, released in BioRxiv, Gottschalk et al. have demonstrated that KEPTIDE™ Covid strongly binds to the ACE-2 receptor in primate kidney cells. In independent studies conducted at Northwestern Throughput Laboratories and CDC-approved Coppe Laboratories, Sotira's team demonstrates that upon binding with the ACE-2 receptor KEPTIDE^TM Covid dramatically reduces the entry of the SARS-CoV2 virus into these cells. Preliminary in vivo experiments have identified that the chronic administration of KEPTIDE™ Covid did not display any side-effects when administered via the intranasal route. Unlike a vaccine, KEPTIDE™ Covid targets the human receptor cells instead of the virus itself and will continue to provide effective protection as the virus evolves and mutates in unexpected ways.

Contact: Grant Crone, [email protected]

SOURCE Sotira