New easy-to-use tuberculosis vaccine patch in development
Researchers from Leiden have developed a promising TB vaccine that users can self-administer via a special patch. This could be beneficial for countries with limited health services, says PhD candidate Malene Neustrup.
TB remains one of the deadliest infectious diseases in the world, Neustrup explains, killing more than one million people each year. The problem is that the current vaccine, BCG, isn’t effective enough. It provides poor protection for adults against pulmonary tuberculosis and can even be dangerous for people with weakened immune systems.
Nanoparticles as couriers
Neustrup investigated the effectiveness of a new type of vaccine that she developed with a research team from the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research and the LUMC. The researchers used a small piece of the TB bacterium that causes the disease. This piece, the antigen, shows the immune system who the enemy is. The team incorporated the antigen into nanoparticles that act as couriers, delivering the vaccine to the right place and awakening the immune system. Neustrup’s task was to perfect the nanoparticles.
The team tested three different types of nanoparticles on mice. Two worked as well as the current BCG vaccine, and one (PLGA), made from a biodegradable polymer, even performed better, Neustrup concluded.
Special patch
Neustrup points to another significant outcome: the team designed a special patch to administer the experimental vaccine. This patch contains hundreds of tiny needles so small that you don’t feel them, which dissolve in the skin and release the vaccine. This new type of vaccine could be an important step in the fight against TB, says Neustrup. ‘This technology paves the way for cheaper, more accessible vaccine development in the future. This would be especially useful in poorer countries that do not have many doctors but do have a good infrastructure with cold storage facilities.’
Future
It will take some time before this new concept is brought to market. ‘Our main reason for producing the vaccines was to prove various concepts regarding the formulation of different types of nanoparticles and microneedles’, says Neustrup. ‘But hopefully, other groups or the pharmaceutical industry will be able to use our research as the basis for a new TB vaccine.’