Research on the R21 vaccine developed as part of the fight against malaria continues with researchers from the University of Oxford (England). They announced a significant progress in the development of said vaccine. This is the test phase of the three doses in one on the mouse, after the two in one successful, and clinical trials in humans being launched.
After decades of research, an effective vaccine at more than 75 % and baptized R21 has been deployed to children from the age of 5 months since 2022. But it required three injections to one month of interval and a reminder a year later. Which was not profitable, according to the researchers’ team, for whom very few families come back for reminders. And this considerably reduces, according to the researchers, vaccination coverage and therefore its effectiveness.
To respond to this problem of the effectiveness of the vaccine and vaccination coverage, a new revolutionary technology called “encapsulation” has been developed.
The technology makes it possible to administer all doses in this way and to deliver them until timely.
The principle is based, according to them, on the controlled degradation of the wall of the microcapsule, which thus releases the following dose. By chemically modifying this “shell”, it becomes possible to choose precisely when the product will be distributed in the body.
And they managed to demonstrate the effectiveness of this concept on mice by injecting them with a solution containing two doses of vaccine: the first, free in the preparation, the second, contained in programmed microcapsules to release it after two weeks and the process was as effective as two separate injections.
After this first recorded victory, the researchers’ team is now working on a new preparation which will contain the first three doses of malaria vaccination: “The first, free, the second, scheduled to get out of the capsule after two weeks and the third after three months”.
As for the fourth dose, which must take place a year after the first injection, “this remains a long-term objective, because this poses the problem of the stability of the vaccine that must be maintained during this period when it is at body temperature,” she said, while explaining that it would therefore be more judicious to focus on the replacement of the first three injections by one, and organize annual seasonal campaigns. This greatly facilitates the logistics of the vaccination campaign and reduces vaccination hesitation linked to repeated injections at close intervals.
The first tests continue on the mouse, before the launch of clinical trials in humans. This revolutionary technology may be beneficial to other vaccines requiring several injections.
YZ
Lefaso.net
Source : Letemps