Scientists at the University of Würzburg are working with a pharmaceutical company on a new method for oral coronary vaccination.
If Professor Thomas Rudel and biopharmaceutical company Aeterna Zentaris GmbH are on the way, there could be a major increase in the fight against Corona pandemic in the future: a vaccine that has not administered with a syringe, but in capsule form that can be simply swallowed. Preclinical development, which should be a method for the first clinical trials in humans, has already begun.
Thomas Rudel is Chair of Microbiology at Julius Maximilian University in Würzburg (JMU). A good year ago, he came up with the idea for an oral vaccine. His approach: “We use an approach that has already been used for several years, millions of times, as protection against typhoid infection”. The oral typhoid vaccine is based on a specific species of bacteria, Salmonella Typhi Ty21a.
Potentially strong immune response
Rudel and the scientists in his laboratory are now working with the same type of bacterial. However, with a big change: “We have programmed the bacteria to produce SARS-CoV-2 antigens,” the microbiologist explains. Protected in a capsule from gastric acid attack, the bacteria have the right to spread their effects in the small human intestine after passing through the stomach. The scientific method assumes that the bacteria can pass the antigens to the immune system there.
Certain cells in the intestinal wall have a right to ensure that bacteria and the antigens are taken up by immune cells and carried further into lymphoid material. “
Thomas Rudel, Chair of Microbiology, Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg
There, they could activate other cells of the immune system – called B cells and T cells – and initiate an immune response. Rudel hopes that, if successful, this immune response will be so strong that all organs of human mucous will be alerted, resulting in coronaviruses being prevented from invading into the body there.
Built-in safety anchor
There is a simple reason that the bacteria developed by the Rudel team should not produce one but two antigens: as has been shown in recent months, SARS-CoV- 2 going often. This may be due to the fact that one antigen is only weakly effective if the virus should be modified accordingly. Thus the second antigen could be a “safety anchor”: It is based on a gene that has been proven to be infrequent.
Very cheap to produce, easy to administer and relatively stable even at normal temperatures: here are a few beneficial properties that such a vaccine could have when it reaches market level. If successful, this would make it attractive for use in countries where it is difficult to ensure a cold chain with temperatures as low as minus 70 ° C without any breakage.
Experience from previous vaccine development
Thomas Rudel and his team are developing the vaccine rays with financial support from Aeterna Zentaris GmbH and will complete preclinical work; upon successful completion of the preclinical work, the pharmaceutical company would be responsible for the subsequent clinical trials. Rudel is confident that the necessary permissions will be obtained relatively quickly. A few years ago, Aeterna Zentaris had already been working with a prostate cancer vaccine-like approach that was about to go into clinical trials and was approved by the authorities for a clinical trial. The team can now build on this experience.
Despite all the euphoria, Rudel warns that there is no guarantee that an oral vaccine against Covid-19 will soon be available in pharmacies. After all, many active substances have failed even at a late stage of development because they were not effective enough or showed unexpected and undesirable effects. This danger is always there. Rudel desperately wants to wait in the coming months.