Vaccines & Vaccination

Biography

Biography: Neena Mitter

Abstract

We have developed a nano-carrier delivery system for vaccines that demonstrates strong adjuvant effects, potential for reducing dose number and elimination of cold chain requirements. The technology was developed to reduce the administration costs of vaccines and to improve compliance, a key factor undermining the effectiveness of multi-dose vaccines. The novel hollow silica vesicles (SV) nano-carriers have a well-controlled diameter in the range 30-70 nm and a thin wall of just a few nanometres perforated by pores of controllable size in the range 6-20 nm. The large internal cavity acts as a high capacity reservoir for biologics such as proteins which are easily loaded through the large pores in the vesicle walls. The carrier vesicles are sized for effective endocytosis and display a strong adjuvant effect, potentially removing the requirement for dedicated adjuvants in a formulation. The SV nano- carrier technology has been demonstrated in mouse trials, initially in an animal vaccine application targeting Bovine viral diarrhoea virus BVDV using the subunit vaccine E2 protein, an immunogenic fragment which is active for prevention of BVDV. Use of the E2/SV formulation significantly increased the humoral as well as cell mediated immune response over the formulation using the standard Quil A adjuvant. We have further shown that vaccination with non-freeze-dried and the freeze-dried E2/SV formulation elicited balanced immune responses for up to 6 months post the final second immunisation. The technology is currently being developed for animal vaccine applications and has the potential for translation to human health.