VACCINES are a crucial element against the Covid-19 pandemic and the nanotechnologies could increase its potential. This technology has had an incredible impact in our lives in recent years, even if often invisible, from the scratch-resistant surfaces of glasses and watches, to stain-resistant fabrics, through smartphones and televisions.
The use of nanotechs in medicine ranges from diagnostics to pharmacology. The first nanovaccine on the market, against hepatitis B, dates back to 1986. In 2006, the one against human papillomarivus that uses virus-like particles arrived. An mRna nanovaccine was tested in 2013 by San Diego Health researchers who managed to produce a vaccine that was both more effective and safer than those with denatured toxin, creating a molecular “scaffold” capable of carrying inactive staph toxins. , making them more recognizable by the immune system.
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Now, against Covid-19, a team of Mexican researchers from the Universidad Autonoma de San Luis Potosí is planning to use gold nanoparticles and coronavirus RNA to create total immunity. The Mexican prototype is still far from being tested on humans, but successfully triggered an immune response in mice, setting the stage for further testing and demonstrating the promise of nanotechnology in vaccine development. The antigenic peptide of Sars-Cov-2 was successfully matched to the AuNp-S gold nanoparticles and achieved an improved response compared to the soluble peptide. The first results of the research were published in the scientific journal Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicinand thus paving the way for the production of next-generation vaccines for inducing optimal immune responses even against variants.
The guinea pigs were injected with gold molecules thousands of times smaller than the diameter of a human hair, linked to numerous peptide copies of the spike protein gene, using a compound called Thiol Peg Amine to glue them together. Gold has already been used as a molecular transporter and is also known for its antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties and, contrary to what one might think, it is inexpensive and its production would be cheaper than other vaccines already on the market.
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In mice, the immune response produced by this prototype was four times greater than in a traditional mRna vaccine. It must be said that the peptide has been associated with Freund’s adjuvant, a solution that strengthens the immune response that is not safe for humans, due to its side effects. Therefore, alternatives will have to be found and tested in the next stages of research. But the first step was just to prove the effectiveness of coronavirus RNA transport with gold, and the test succeeded.
“Our group worked to solve the stability problems of AuNp-S, the gold nanoparticles, to use them as a vaccine,” said the research author. Omar Gonzàlez-Ortega “We have been able to successfully address many of these problems so that we can have an effective and inexpensive vaccine.” This is because “it does not require the production and purification of complex recombinant proteins but only uses synthetic peptides which are cheaper and readily available. At least in Mexico, our results help establish that metal nanoparticles could make vaccines cheap. ”
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Unlike products formulated with full-length Spike protein or traditional mRna, the nanotech vaccine aims to achieve sterilizing immunity – a stronger immune response that can quickly prevent a virus from making its way into the body. “The vaccines currently in use are unlikely to provide sterilizing immunity,” the researchers said, “but this study could open up new approaches to achieving it, providing an even more effective weapon against the pandemic.”.