LONDON - AdProTech plc of Royston, Hertfordshire, has agreed to a license with Cambridge University for C3d, a new adjuvant technology that is DNA-encodeable. The company said the technology could be used to incorporate adjuvants into DNA vaccines and to create novel vaccines based on antigens that are poorly immunogenic.

C3d was invented by Douglas Fearon of Cambridge University. He has collaborated with AdProTech over the past two years to develop the company's Immudaptin platform technology. The license marks the passing of the milestone of being able to define and achieve an economic production route for the molecule.

Fearon has demonstrated a 10,000-fold increase in immune response in mice injected with C3d molecules attached to hen egg lysozyme. An immune response was elicited at a 100-fold lower dose when the antigen was linked to C3d than when it was mixed with alum, the standard adjuvant.

C3d is a protein derived from the plasma protein C3, which is produced in mammals when the complement immune response is activated. Invading organisms are coated in C3d, and it is the binding of a coated organism to an antibody-producing cell that stimulates the specific immune response to that organism. The C3d technology therefore represents an adjuvant that has its origins in the natural human immune response.

Edward Dart, CEO of AdProTech, said the company has already had approaches from major vaccines producers.