– The Friedrich-Alexander University is developing a corona oral vaccination. If the project is successful, the technology should also be used for other vaccinations. The Ministry of Economics wants to support the research.
The Friedrich-Alexander University is researching a corona vaccine that is not injected but swallowed. The Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection has now announced that it will fund the project with around three million euros. The swallowable mRNA technology should be developed by 2025 – the basis for the research are microorganisms that normally live in volcanic areas.
The mini volcano dwellers can help to overcome the biggest hurdle for an oral vaccination with mRNA: Before such a vaccine can develop its protective effect in the intestine, it must first pass through the stomach. However, it is a real killer organ. “The stomach is not only very acidic, but also teeming with enzymes that break down our food into its components,” explains Dagmar Fischer. She holds the FAU Chair in Pharmaceutical Technology and Biopharmacy and is in charge of the central production department in the oral vaccine project “TEL-DrugDelivery”, in which “TEL” is an abbreviation for tetraether lipids. The companies BianoGMP, IFB, Ionovation and CAM-D Technologies, as well as the non-university research institute iba are also involved in the project.
Tetraether lipids are biomolecules that are critical for the survival of microorganisms in inhospitable volcanic environments. Some of these tiny creatures not only have to withstand very high temperatures, but also extreme acid baths that destroy almost all biomolecules. Cell walls of normal bacteria are cracked open by these acids. The “archaea”, on the other hand, survive the corrosive acids and should also survive the path through the stomach.
The vaccine must be packed well
But even with a vaccination in the upper arm muscle, it is necessary to pack the vaccine in lipids – even if they do not have to survive an acid bath in the stomach. “The vaccines consisting of the biomolecule ‘mRNA’ are very sensitive, even without strong acid they are broken down into their components after just a few minutes,” explains the coordinator of the overall project, Tobias Pöhlmann from the BianoGMP company.
For this reason, the mRNA is packaged in lipids, which not only stabilize the vaccine but can also deliver it to the body’s cells. A specific protein of the pathogen is then produced there according to the construction instructions of the mRNA. This is how the immune system gets to know parts of the virus and begins to fight them. If a vaccinated person later becomes infected with the Covid-19 pathogen, the immune system remembers the vaccination, begins to fight the infection quickly and thus usually ensures a mild course.
The oral vaccination has many advantages
The FAU believes that the oral vaccination offers significant advantages over the injection. The vaccine can be packed in capsules or compressed into tablets that can be stored at normal temperatures. The previous Covid-19 vaccines, on the other hand, have to be transported frozen, which already poses some challenges in Germany, but is hardly possible in many countries in the global south and especially in remote regions. Also, people can easily swallow the drug by themselves without much guidance.
Covid-19 vaccination must be safe
Once the swallowable drug is ready, the researchers check how the substance actually reacts in the human organism. The conditions in the oral cavity, in the stomach and in the intestine are simulated in the laboratory. “There we not only look at how stable the mRNA survives this environment, but also investigate whether the archaeosomes can damage the cells of the intestine, for example,” explains Dagmar Fischer. Finally, the vaccine must also be safe.
At the end of the project, it should be possible to expand the research. “We want to develop a platform that also transports vaccines other than the Covid 19 vaccine,” says Fischer. After all, mRNA vaccines are also to be used against other dangerous infections and tumors in the future.
