#intranasal

News Release 21-Nov-2024

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Prof. Ronit Satchi-Fainaro's lab at TAU's Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences collaborated with Prof. Helena Florindo’s lab at the University of Lisbon to produce a novel nano-vaccine for COVID-19.

The nano-vaccine, a 200-nanometer particle, trains the immune system against all common COVID-19 variants, just as effectively as existing vaccines. Moreover, unlike other vaccines it is conveniently administered as a nasal spray and does not require a cold supply chain or ultra-cold storage.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/advs.202404159

Additionally, mice treated with siPD-L1 NV-8 (IN booster) exhibited enhanced GC responses (Figure 5O), consistent with the strong humoral and mucosal immunities also detected in this group. In contrast, the mRNA vaccine induced higher numbers of Tfh and Tfr cells (Figure 5O). Regarding antibody levels, both vaccines revealed similar IgG titers (Figure 5P). Overall, our data show that heterologous immunization with siPD-L1 NV-8 effectively stimulates mucosal (cellular and humoral) immunity, providing robust protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection

...

The versatility of our NV platform was further demonstrated by its capacity to induce robust mucosal immunity following intranasal booster immunization. This route triggered significant CD4+ and CD8+ TRM, high mucosal IgA levels, and robust systemic immunity. These findings underscore the potential of our NV platform not only for SARS-CoV-2 but also for other pathogens requiring mucosal immunity.

Mucosal immunity (the first line of defense, preventing pathogen replication) is what many vaccine researchers have been aiming for. See also:

Local Action

Vaccines are typically injected into an arm muscle, including those recently developed against SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19. Yet coronaviruses first infect the mucous membranes in our respiratory tract, in the nose, mouth, throat and lungs. Administering vaccines intranasally, to target those frontline areas, could allow us to respond to infection faster. Nasal vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 have already been developed in India and China, but researchers are now testing a new intranasal live-attenuated vaccine, containing a modified virus. Tests in hamsters found it highly effective: very few SARS-CoV-2 particles (in brown) penetrated their nasal mucous membranes after double vaccination with the intranasal vaccine (top left) or even a combination of one intranasal dose with an existing mRNA vaccine (bottom left), compared to poor results after intramuscular vaccination only (right-hand panels). Following up these encouraging results with safety and efficacy trials in humans could provide new options for future vaccination.

Written by Emmanuelle Briolat

Image adapted from work by Geraldine Nouailles and Julia M. Adler, and colleagues

Department of Infectious Diseases, Respiratory Medicine and Critical Care, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Nature Immunology, April 2023

Alternative Route

Many pathogens, including viruses like HIV, influenza and SARS-Cov-2, first invade our bodies through mucosal surfaces, lining our respiratory or urinogenital tracts. Strong immune responses there would help resist infection, so administering vaccines at relevant entry points, such as the nose, should be beneficial. Yet intranasal vaccines have had limited success, struggling to get past protective mucosal barriers. Researchers may have found a solution, by combining antigens, the active ingredients of vaccines, with a lipid tail that binds to albumin, a protein that naturally crosses mucosal membranes. Tests using antigens against SARS-Cov-2 or HIV, in both mice and rhesus macaques, found strong immune responses after intranasal vaccination with these complexes, known as amph-proteins (pictured, in red, in the nasal passages of a mouse). Antibodies were found in both nasal tissues and blood serum, suggesting local and general immunity, encouraging results that could pave the way for new approaches to vaccination.

Written by Emmanuelle Briolat

Image from work by Brittany L. Hartwell and colleagues

Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

Image copyright held by the original authors

Research published in Science Translational Medicine, July 2022

Familiarising the Problem

Despite the odd headline about cats, dogs, and even hippos catching COVID-19, it has been difficult to develop a reliable animal model for scientific studies. Mice are not well suited to catching COVID, but researchers have genetically engineered some to be more susceptible. These test cases are typically infected with liquid suspensions of the virus through the nose, but tend to develop severe central nervous system infection (pictured, with the virus in red spread throughout the brain slice). This potentially fatal complication isn’t common in humans, so a new study has developed a way to inoculate mice with an aerosolised virus, which results in an infection with much more familiar responses of respiratory problems, anosmia [loss of sense of smell], and cellular changes comparable to those seen in human patients. Scientists hope that interrogating this more representative model will reveal COVID’s secrets and point to a potential path out of the pandemic.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Image from work by Valeria Fumagalli, Micol Ravà and Davide Marotta, and colleagues

Division of Immunology, Transplantation, and Infectious Diseases, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy

Image copyright held by and reproduced with permission from the AAAS

Published in Science Immunology, November 2021

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, along with collaborators at Northwestern University, have developed a noninvasive approach to treat one of the most aggressive and deadly brain cancers. Their technology uses precisely engineered structures assembled from nano-size materials to deliver potent tumor-fighting medicine to the brain through nasal drops. The novel…

Researchers from two State Key Laboratories in Institute of Process Engineering (IPE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed a novel intranasal mask to protect the respiratory tract from viral aerosols. It showed satisfactory protection in mouse model, digital human nasal model and human respiratory tract model. The study was published in Nature Communications. Respiratory infectious…

ભારતે વિશ્વની પ્રથમ ઇન્ટ્રાનેસલ કોવિડ-19 રસી બનાવી

Intranasal COVID vaccine fails to induce mucosal immunity.

—