PLEASANTON, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- October 16, 2006 -- Lipid Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: LIPD) announced that a paper entitled “Delipidation of a Hepadnaviurs: Viral Inactivation and Vaccine Development” by B.E. Cham*, K. Vickery et.al., appearing in the Journal of Virological Methods 137 (2006) 160-163, outlined a novel approach to viral inactivation by the process of delipidation. In this study, delipidated Hepatitis B virus was successfully used to vaccinate and protect young ducklings against a lethal challenge. The duck/duck hepatitis B model was chosen to demonstrate this principal because it has been used as a surrogate for Hepatitis B. The second aim of the study was to determine whether removing lipids from the envelope of DHBV (Duck Hepatitis B Virus) would preserve the viral proteins in their antigenic form -- which was successfully demonstrated. The results of this study support the premise that delipidation of lipid-enveloped viruses with specific organic solvent combinations has potential as a basis for the development of vaccines with a wide range of human and animal health animal applications.
