The effectiveness of vaccines can be increased by more than 25% with the addition of chiral gold nanoparticles. The study brings together research groups from the universities of Michigan (USA) and Jiangnan (China) and had the participation of scientist André Farias de Moura, from UFSCar and from the Center for the Development of Functional Materials (CDMF) from FAPESP.
The work was not carried out with vaccines against Covid-19, because it began to be done well before the current pandemic. The researchers used vaccines developed for a strain of influenza (flu) virus. The technique adds the left-oriented nanoparticle to the vaccine compound that can potentiate the immune response to the immunizer. In principle, this technique can be replicated in any vaccine.
“The key to understanding the contribution of these nanoparticles is the concept of chirality, which applies to an object or system that cannot be superimposed on its mirror image”, Moura tells Agência FAPESP.
The term derives from the Greek word kheir, which means hand. And the quintessential example of chirality is exactly given by our right and left hands. When we look in the mirror with both hands flat in front of us, the hand we see on the right of the image is our left hand. And vice versa.
“Everything that is alive on planet Earth is chiral. Chiral molecules can have completely different properties, whether they are oriented to the left or to the right. The two chiral forms of the same molecule are called enantiomers. A tragic example was thalidomide , a drug produced for the treatment of nausea during pregnancy that, in the 1960s, caused a worldwide outbreak of malformations in fetuses. was being gestated”, says Moura.
how it was done
The researcher reports that, at the current stage of the study of nanomaterials, it is possible to completely separate one enantiomer from the other. And the present study was based precisely on this possibility.
“Initially, we tested the nanoparticles in in vitro cultures of cells of the human immune system. And we found that the chiral nanoparticles induced the production of substances associated with the immune response even in the absence of antigens, that is, of something capable of producing antibodies. This type of reaction is exactly what the adjuvant does in a vaccine”, says Moura.
Then the team tested the nanoparticles on a strain of influenza. “We found that the enantiomers caused the applied vaccine to have a very large increase in effectiveness. Specifically, the left enantiomer caused an increase in effectiveness of 25.8%, compared to the right enantiomer and even greater in relation to the achiral nanoparticle” , adds Moura.
The researcher emphasizes that the knowledge is published and available to anyone who wants to use it. “Any manufacturer of any type of vaccine, including new variants of the coronavirus or influenza, will be able to make use of it. We are not vaccine developers, but we are offering basic knowledge, a new technological platform, for those who develop”, he concludes.
First on News TVS 24
