Put a nanovaccine in your nose!
The nanoemulsion vaccine developed by scientists at the University of Michigan, working under the guidance of Professor James Baker, is a mixture of soy oil, alcohol, water and surfactants in the form of an emulsion with a particle size of no more than 400 nm, to which whole pathogens or their fragments are added as antigens.
In 2003, in animal experiments, the authors demonstrated the effectiveness of a nasal nanoemulsion influenza vaccine. The results of the last two studies have demonstrated the possibility of using the approach proposed by the authors to create vaccines using various immunogenic agents. When creating a smallpox vaccine, whole viral particles were added to the emulsion, and when creating an HIV vaccine, one of the virus proteins was added. In both cases, the vaccines caused the development of persistent immunity.
The surface tension of nanoparticles damages the cell walls of bacteria and destroys viral particles, but it practically does not affect human cells located deep in the tissue. Nanoemulsion vaccines penetrate well into the nasal mucosa and initiate the formation of a pronounced immune response. The authors are also exploring the possibility of using nasal nanoemulsion vaccines to protect against hepatitis B and pathogens that could primarily be used for bioterrorism.
Nanoemulsion vaccine against smallpoxThe developers believe that their proposed nanoemulsion vaccine against smallpox is safer than the existing vaccine containing live cowpox virus, because the viral particles included in it are killed by interaction with the surface of the nanoparticles.
The introduction of a nanoemulsion vaccine into the nasal passages of mice initiated not only the formation of local immunity in the mucosal tissue, but also the appearance of virus-specific antibodies and T-helper-1, which are an important indicator of the development of systemic immunity.
Exposure to live cowpox virus killed all animals of the control group, but did not cause the death of any of the vaccinated mice. Based on the results obtained, the authors claim that the effectiveness of the new vaccine is similar to that of a traditional drug, but its use is not associated with the risk of working with a live virus and eliminates the need to use adjuvants that cause inflammatory reactions, such as aluminum hydroxide.
Finally an HIV vaccine?
The researchers also obtained results in preliminary testing of the effectiveness of the nanoemulsion HIV vaccine in mice.
The authors claim that the introduction of a nanoemulsin vaccine into the nose causes the formation of a local (mucosal) immune response in the mucous membranes of the genitals. Recently, there is more and more evidence that HIV can infect the immune cells of the mucous membranes (and, in any case, sexual infection occurs through them), so the formation of mucosal immunity can help in HIV prevention/AIDS.
The introduction of a nanoemulsion vaccine to mice containing gp120 binding protein, which is one of the most popular human immunodeficiency virus proteins in the development of HIV vaccines, caused the formation of mucosal immunity, cellular immunity and neutralizing antibodies to various HIV strains.
According to the authors, the purpose of this work was to clarify the feasibility of further research. Currently, they plan to continue testing the concept of nasal nanovaccines on animals, including using vaccines containing whole viral particles and multi-protein components.
The University of Michigan has already patented the technology for creating nanoemulsion vaccines, the exclusive license for the use of which was obtained by the NanoBio biotechnology company based in Ann Arbor (Michigan).
Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of ScienceDaily
29.02.2008