RuaTech chief executive Dr Steve Hodgkinson says their colostrum-based product could provide another layer of protection to people against covid-19 in high-risk places such as airplanes, MIQ or concerts.
A Waikato research and technology company is developing a product using the medicinal properties of colostrum to provide greater immunity protection of people against the effects of covid-19 infection.
Created by Ruakura Technologies (RuaTech), it uses colostrum containing enhanced levels of antibodies targeting the covid-causing virus.
These are produced using a natural dairy cow vaccination process, similar to several other maternal treatments for induction of antibodies for protection of the calf after birth.
RuaTech chief executive Dr Steve Hodgkinson and his team have used this process to establish proof-of-concept that the eventual product will be able to provide immune support against covid.
He says the technology is not new, having been used over the years to create immune support from bacteria and diseases, including E.coli and rotavirus in calf rearing.
“Mothers produce milk, they pass on immunity to the newborn via that milk and that’s in the form of antibodies,” Hodgkinson said.
“If you were to immunise a dairy cow in the run up to calving, it would also transfer antibodies against the target antigen into its milk.”
If that animal was immunised against covid antigens, he says the resulting covid antibodies are then transferred into the cow’s milk.
Hodgkinson tested this concept by producing a panel covid antigens (similar to the human vaccines), which had been modified to increase immunogenicity in the ruminant.
These were then put through an immunisation trial at the Ruakura Research Centre in Waikato.
He says design and production of these antigens was the most complex part of the development programme, but was essential to produce antibodies with the required titre (concentration) and specificity.
Having done this trialling, he was then able to select the most effective antigens to take into pilot scale production.
“We designed our own covid antigens and we specifically adapted them for the immunisation of ruminants,” he said.
Hodgkinson says the antigen designs are novel and inventive and are now the subject of a provisional patent.
“We now know a lot about the antibodies that are produced by these antigens. For example, it was critical to determine how effective the antibodies are at blocking covid binding to human cells,” he said.
“That was the critical thing to determine if what we have got is of any use – can it block the infection pathway of the virus and, yes, our antibodies can. They’re very good at it.
He then took a selection of animals injected with the vaccine through their pregnancy and collected their milk for analysis.
It confirmed these antibodies were transferred over from the female to the milk.
Immune milk technology has been around for some years but was not effectively commercialised because it was an idea before its time. Hodgkinson says covid changed that.
“It was the opportunity the immune milk platform required because we have everything here at our fingertips to get a product out there,” he said.
Hodgkinson says the work to date has been funded by a loan provided by Callaghan Innovation and taking it to the next step requires capital, working with industry partners and access to regulatory expertise.
That step involves an on-farm pilot using the antigen on a dairy herd and collecting and processing the colostrum for processing and manufacture of a product for human consumption.
He said he is in conversation with the dairy industry, government bodies and the investment community about partnering and funding this.
“The risk to New Zealand dairy is that if we don’t partner and find a clear way forward here, we may be forced to take the opportunity overseas,” he said.
But he hoped to keep the technology in this country because NZ’s dairy industry had the scale and sophistication to take an opportunity like this on.
Hodgkinson believes the end consumer product could be a nasal spray, single-shot beverage or chewable that contains the covid-resistant antibodies.
Dairy proteins, including antibodies, tended to stay in the lining of the nasal tract after consumption and delivering the product this way would help these antibodies block the binding of the covid virus to human cells following exposure.
He emphasised that the product is not a vaccine substitute, but could provide another layer of protection in high-risk places such as airplanes, MIQ or concerts.
The product could also be adapted if other covid variants emerge or could be used to provide immunity support from other pathogens such as the norovirus.
In the ideal scenario where funding is successful, Hodgkinson says he could have the antigens ready by February-March, in time to be administered to cows in April-May ahead of calving in July.
The antigens remained in the cow for about a month and are likely to be cleared before milk collection.
From there, he believes there could be a product ready for trial and market development by August 2022.
