Most vaccines are administered into the muscle, although HIV or SARS-CoV-2 infect through the mucous membranes, which are targeted a new technique that has achieved strong antibody responses against these viruses in tests with mice and non-human primates.
A study led by American researchers and published today by Science Translational Medicine presents a new intranasal vaccination platform with which immunizing proteins can be administered across the mucosal surface.
Although intranasal vaccines can elicit stronger and more protective antibody responses than injected ones, research so far has been limited by the low vaccine uptake through the mucosal linings.
However, new technology provides a “promising approach” to administer vaccines through the nose and other mucosal surfaces instead of traditional injections, notes the scientific journal.
The research team, headed by Brittany Hartwell, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has created a strategy that allows immunostimulatory proteins travel across mucosal surfacess.
They used amph proteins, which consist of viral proteins conjugated with a water-soluble end. thanks to which it binds to albumin. Albumin is a blood protein that crosses the mucosa by interacting with the neonatal receptor for CF, which transports it bidirectionally across the mucosal epithelium, making it suitable as a mediator for vaccine delivery.
Amph can be formulated with the Env gp120 protein, which is on the outer envelope of HIV, or with the SARS-Cov2 receptor-binding domain (RBD) protein, which is the one that binds to human cells.
When administered intranasally to mice and macaques, it induces high concentrations of immunoglobulin G (IgG) and IgA antibodies in various mucosal tissues.
“These results could bode well for the possibility of a vaccine. to prevent HIV infection and have the potential to contribute to the goal of a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine regardless of variant,” Francis Szoka of the University of California said in an accompanying article exploring the clinical implications of the study.
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