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Vaccines against infectious diseases like the flu contain deactivated or weakened microbes that cause influenza. Used for decades, the formula has proven its value time and time again. But can it be improved? That’s the challenge taken up by Joaquin Ortega, researcher at the Centre for Structural Biology Research (CRBS) and scientific director of the Facility for Electron Microscopy Research (FEMR) at McGill University. In collaboration with the team led by Jonathan Lovell at the University at Buffalo, he and his group developed a new approach using nanotechnology. Relying on nanoparticles known as cobalt porphyrin (CoPoP), small and only slightly immunogenic viral proteins are integrated into the surface of a liposome to boost the immune response.

The experts helped characterize this innovative vaccine formula using cryo-electron microscopy. They generated detailed images of the vaccine’s nanoparticles to assess their size, their shape and the antigen’s exposure to the immune cells and observe the proteins of the influenza virus forming a crown on the outer wall of small round vesicles made of lipids known as liposomes. This characterization of the vaccine is a mandatory step before moving on to clinical trials, since it’s essential to ensure the arrangement of the viral proteins on top of the liposomes triggers the desired immune response.

CoPoP vaccines have several advantages over standard antigenic preparations. The innovative new recipe is more versatile since it can include several proteins from different viral strains and even different viruses, giving CoPoP vaccines the potential to target different pathogens. They can also be produced within a shorter timeframe, remain stable at room temperature and even be freeze-dried (i.e., dried out and reduced to powder) to then be redissolved and administered, making them more accessible to people in developing countries and remote areas. So far, clinical trials have been encouraging. POP Biotechnologies and EuBiologics are now testing the CoPoP approach against a variety of infectious agents.

Sources:

  • Jiao, Y., Huang, W.C., Chiem, K., Song, Y., Sun, J., Chothe, S., … Lovell, J.F. (2023). SARS-CoV-2 protein nanoparticle vaccines formed in situ from lyophilized lipids, National Library of Medicine, 20(9). doi:10.1002/smll.202304534
  • Sia, Z.R., Roy, J., Huang, W.C., Song, Y., Zhou, S., Luo, Y., … Lovell, J.F. (2024). Adjuvanted Nanoliposomes Displaying Six Hemagglutinins and Neuraminidases as an Influenza Virus Vaccine, Cell Reports Medicine, 5(3). doi: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2024.101433
  • Sia, Z., Chiem, K., Huang, W.C., Seffouh, A., Ortega, J., Davidson, B., Martinez-Sobrido, L., et Lovell, J.F. (2022). Respiratory vaccination with hemagglutinin nanoliposomes protects mice from homologous and heterologous strains of influenza virus, Journal of virology, 96(19). doi: 10.1128/jvi.01006-22