Breakthrough For Delivery Of DNA Vaccines

A team of scientists at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, USA, have made a potential breakthrough in developing a method of delivering DNA vaccines.

Using electrically activated gold nanoparticles, the novel method causes the particles to oscillate and bore holes in the outer membrane of cells. It is then possible to introduce key molecules, such as DNA, RNA and proteins, into the cells themselves.

The reason why this discovery is exciting is because, unlike other ways of delivering such vaccines, the nanoparticles aren’t tethered to the molecules they’re introducing to the cell. As a result, this new method can improve the therapeutic potency and effectiveness of any treatment.

Mohamed Shehata Draz, PhD, and first author on the study, described their approach as “unique”. He continued: “Both the electric field parameters and the nanoparticle properties can be augmented to perform other important functions, such as precisely removing cells or blood clots.”

The study, which lasted for nearly three months, examined the technique’s efficacy in delivering a DNA vaccine against Hepatitis C in mice.

As well as recording a strong immune response, the researchers noted that there were no indications of toxicity throughout the study period.

Lead researcher Hadi Shafiee, PhD and assistant professor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, added that the team are keen to look into how their method could be used deliver other important biological molecules, including RNA.

There has been a considerable amount of research in the field of DNA vaccines recently, with the threat of infectious diseases such as the Zika virus pushing scientists in America and elsewhere in the world to focus their attention on finding effective vaccines for such outbreaks, and quickly.

A piece in the Wall Street Journal highlighted the efforts of those in the pharmaceutical sector to find a marketable vaccine for the Zika virus. Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc is currently trialling its vaccine, complete with an electroporation device that’s used to deliver a jolt of electricity to help deliver the DNA vaccine into cells.

Meanwhile, one of the National Institutes of Health is also working on its own vaccine against Zika, the newspaper revealed, with its trial beginning over the summer of 2016.

There are numerous advantages to DNA vaccines over their traditional counterparts, but particularly in terms of the speed with which they can be developed and tested.

The Wall Street Journal highlighted a Zika vaccine being developed by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

Using a shelved West Nile vaccine, which had shown promise but was never fully developed, the NIAID was able to go from having a vaccine design to beginning human trials within four months.

But even if such vaccines prove effective in trials, it will still take a couple of years before they become more widely available, due to the regulatory requirements they need to satisfy before a company is allowed to begin marketing their product.

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