CEL-SCI's LEAPS peptides demonstrate clear survival benefit in COVID treatment

CEL-SCI announced today its LEAPS COV-19 peptides, delivered as a therapeutic treatment following SARS-CoV-2 virus challenge, achieved a 40% survival rate in transgenic mouse models as compared to 0% survival in the two control groups in studies conducted at the University of Georgia Center for Vaccines and Immunology. Scientists at the University of Georgia working in conjunction with CEL-SCI's scientific team conducted a challenge study in human(h) ACE2 receptor transgenic mice infected with a dose of SARS-CoV-2 ) virus sufficient to cause death in all animals within 8 days. This transgenic animal model is useful to study COVID-19 disease because the mice express the molecule that provides entry for the SARS-CoV-2 virus into human cells. Virus infection is optimized in this animal model providing an ideal system to determine vaccine induced immune protection or therapy against a SARS-CoV-2 infection of humans. The animals were therapeutically treated with CEL-SCI's LEAPS COV-19 peptides one day after infection with a lethal dose of SARS-CoV-2. Of the LEAPS treated mice, forty percent were alive, recovering and regained lost weight, attaining greater than 90% of their starting weight, by the study's end. In contrast, mice in the two control groups lost 20% or more of their body weight by day 8 and all of them died between day 5 and day 8 post challenge. The success of this therapy was statistically significant at a 95% level. An additional study conducted using LEAPS as a vaccine to prevent disease resulted in similar findings to the above described study, but with a slightly lower level of statistical significance. In this study, the Human(h) ACE2 transgenic mice were dosed twice with the LEAPS conjugate 28 and 14 days prior to being challenged with a lethal dose of SARS-CoV-2 virus.