Infectious diseases

Infectious diseases, along with oncology, form the second main research focus of MOLOGEN AG. Based on the MIDGE^® and MIDGE^®-Th1 technology platforms, the company is developing modern DNA vaccines.

These technologies allow the particularly effective generation of specific cellular and humoral immune responses to viruses, bacteria or parasites. The vaccine candidates, unlike conventional vaccines, contain no attenuated or dead pathogens against which to achieve immunity, but simply the "blueprints" of the pathogen's characteristic outer features (known as antigens). With its help, the immune system can learn what the pathogen looks like and can - as with conventional vaccines - establish a "vaccine memory". The antigens, which are then transported using the MIDGE^® gene expression vectors into the immune cells, are made up only of natural DNA components, just like the MIDGE^® vectors. This means that the vaccine candidates from MOLOGEN AG have particularly low side effect profiles.

MIDGE^®-based vaccines can also be developed for therapeutic vaccination. This will enable pathogens to be fought even if the patient is already infected.

MGN1331 and MGN1333

The most advanced is the development of a prophylactic and therapeutic vaccine against leishmaniasis (MGN1331), which is a debilitating, parasitic disease. The development of a new hepatitis B vaccine (MGN1333) represents a further pre-clinical project in the company's infectious diseases portfolio.