Development of the PACTP-CMV® Multi-Epitope Vaccine Cassette

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Project of $745,000 over 18 months

• Supported by CQDM through:
  Ministère de l’Économie, de l’Innovation et de l’Énergie du Québec (MEIE)
• And by co-funding partner:
  – Cell-Immune Pharma Inc.

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Challenge:

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) remains a largely underrecognized infection, but its consequences can be significant. In newborns infected before birth, CMV can cause lasting effects, including hearing loss and developmental disorders. In transplant recipients and immunocompromised people, CMV can also cause major complications. Despite decades of research, there is still no approved vaccine against CMV. Current approaches often rely on a limited number of viral targets and do not always generate a sufficiently broad and durable immune response, particularly involving T cells, which play a key role in eliminating infected cells.

Solution:

Cell-Immune Pharma, in collaboration with Prof. Réjean Lapointe at the CHUM Research Centre, is developing a next-generation multi-epitope vaccine cassette against CMV. Rather than targeting only a few known components of the virus, the approach starts directly from the human immune response to identify the most stable CMV regions that are most likely to trigger a broad and durable response. These regions will be assembled into a modular cassette designed to strengthen CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T-cell responses. It may be integrated into different vaccine platforms, including mRNA, self-amplifying RNA, viral vectors, or recombinant proteins. The project also opens perspectives in oncology, where certain CMV antigens are being studied as immunological targets, notably in glioblastoma. In this context, the cassette developed by Cell-Immune Pharma could help stimulate a T-cell response directed against these tumor-associated viral targets. A link with HDT Bio could also facilitate a potential transition toward clinical studies.

Expected Achievements /Impacts:

The project is expected to generate a multi-epitope vaccine cassette against CMV, supported by preclinical data on its immunogenicity, its capacity to support viral control, and its safety profile. Over time, this innovation could contribute to the development of vaccines capable of generating broader and more durable immune responses against CMV, helping better protect newborns, transplant recipients, and immunocompromised people. Beyond CMV prevention, the project could also support certain oncology immunotherapy strategies, particularly when CMV antigens are used as tumor targets. It will also strengthen a Québec-based antigen discovery platform built on the human immune response, with potential applications in other infections and immunotherapy indications.