New Vaccine Based on Spider Silk Developed
GENEVA (Dispatches)-In order to strengthen the efficacy of vaccines on the immune system -- and in particular on T lymphocytes, specialized in the detection of cancer cells – researchers from the universities of Geneva (UNIGE), Freiburg (UNIFR), Munich, and Bayreuth, in collaboration with the German company AMSilk, have developed spider silk microcapsules capable of delivering the vaccine directly to the heart of immune cells.
To fight cancer, researchers increasingly use vaccines that stimulate the immune system to identify and destroy tumor cells. However, the desired immune response is not always guaranteed.
This process could also be applied to preventive vaccines to protect against infectious diseases, and constitutes an important step towards vaccines that are stable, easy to use, and resistant to the most extreme storage conditions.
Scientists used synthetic spider silk biopolymers -- a lightweight, biocompatible, non-toxic material that is highly resistant to degradation from light and heat. "We recreated this special silk in the lab to insert a peptide with vaccine properties," explains Thomas Scheibel, a world specialist of spider silk from the University of Bayreuth who participated in the study. "The resulting protein chains are then salted out to form injectable microparticles."
Silk microparticles form a transport capsule that protects the vaccine peptide from rapid degradation in the body, and delivers the peptide to the center of the lymph node cells, thereby considerably increasing T lymphocyte immune responses. "Our study has proved the validity of our technique," reveals Carole Bourquin. "We have demonstrated the effectiveness of a new vaccination strategy that is extremely stable, easy to manufacture and easily customizable."
"More and more, scientists are trying to imitate nature in what it does best," adds Scheibel. "This approach even has a name: bioinspiration, which is exactly what we have done here." The properties of spider silk make it a particularly interesting product: biocompatible, solid, thin, biodegradable, resistant to extreme conditions and even antibacterial, one can imagine multiple applications, including wound dressings or sutures.
To fight cancer, researchers increasingly use vaccines that stimulate the immune system to identify and destroy tumor cells. However, the desired immune response is not always guaranteed.
This process could also be applied to preventive vaccines to protect against infectious diseases, and constitutes an important step towards vaccines that are stable, easy to use, and resistant to the most extreme storage conditions.
Scientists used synthetic spider silk biopolymers -- a lightweight, biocompatible, non-toxic material that is highly resistant to degradation from light and heat. "We recreated this special silk in the lab to insert a peptide with vaccine properties," explains Thomas Scheibel, a world specialist of spider silk from the University of Bayreuth who participated in the study. "The resulting protein chains are then salted out to form injectable microparticles."
Silk microparticles form a transport capsule that protects the vaccine peptide from rapid degradation in the body, and delivers the peptide to the center of the lymph node cells, thereby considerably increasing T lymphocyte immune responses. "Our study has proved the validity of our technique," reveals Carole Bourquin. "We have demonstrated the effectiveness of a new vaccination strategy that is extremely stable, easy to manufacture and easily customizable."
"More and more, scientists are trying to imitate nature in what it does best," adds Scheibel. "This approach even has a name: bioinspiration, which is exactly what we have done here." The properties of spider silk make it a particularly interesting product: biocompatible, solid, thin, biodegradable, resistant to extreme conditions and even antibacterial, one can imagine multiple applications, including wound dressings or sutures.