Industry Focus

As the COVID crisis has shown, vaccine distribution faces enormous challenges. Now, a multidisciplinary research team has overcome some of the major problems plaguing the distribution of biomedical materials. They developed a hydrogel that encapsulates proteins and allows for a wider temperature range along the cold chain. The discovery could save lives and billions of dollars.

Artistic rendering of gel encapsulating viral vaccine

Nearly half of the vaccines are wasted due to the logistical hurdles involved in shipping them to different parts of the world. Most vaccines require strict temperature regulation from the production line to injection into the human arm. In the best of circumstances, maintaining a constant temperature on the cold (supply) chain is a challenging feat. For example, in sub-Saharan Africa and other developing regions, limited transport infrastructure and unreliable electricity exacerbate the enormous challenge of delivering viable vaccines.

Rising to the challenge, scientists from ETH Zurich's Laboratory of Polymer Engineering and Organic Chemistry and entrepreneurs from Colorado Nanobiosciences have come together to develop a safe, versatile platform to improve the thermal stability of vaccines. Their goal is to greatly improve the distribution of viable vaccines and reduce the economic costs of the cold chain.

It's like the "Tupperware" of protein

"Think of it like an egg," explains Bruno Marco-Dufort, a doctoral researcher in Professor Mark Tibbitt's Polymer Engineering Laboratory. "At room temperature or in the refrigerator, eggs retain their viscous protein structure, but once exposed to boiling water or a frying pan, their structure changes permanently". The same goes for the proteins in vaccines – they clump together once exposed to a certain temperature. Cooling them again will not reverse their denaturation - you can't "not boil" eggs.

So instead of altering nature, Marco-Dufort and his team developed a new type of hydrogel, the details of which have just been published in the journal Science Advances. Based on a biocompatible synthetic polymer called "PEG," the gel acts as a protective "stealth device" for very large but invisible complex molecules, such as vaccines, antibodies, or protein therapies found in genes. Packaging is a bit like molecular Tupperware, wrapping proteins around and keeping them separate. It enables proteins to withstand a wider range of temperature fluctuations. Unlike traditional cold chain +2 to +8 °C (35 to 45 °F) range, the package allows a range of 25 to 65 °C (75 to 150 °F).

Use in cancer research

In addition to higher vaccine survival rates, what really changes the game for this new biomedical hydrogel technology is the potential economic impact it could have on reducing the costs and health risks associated with the cold chain. "The overall market size for cold chain services, from manufacturing to distribution, was $17.2 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow," the researchers reported. If vaccines arrive through the compromised cold chain, rising costs could have dire consequences for public health and public trust.

"Most vaccines are sensitive to heat and cold. This creates a huge hurdle for the global immunization campaign, as vaccine distribution and management costs often exceed production costs," Marco-Dufort explains. While more investment is needed to prop up the cold chain, packaging offers a cost-saving solution that can be used to produce more vaccines, saving more lives.

However, there is still a long way to go in terms of further research, safety studies, and clinical trials before hydrogels can be used for vaccine distribution. For example, their more immediate use is to transport heat-sensitive enzymes for cancer research, or protein molecules for laboratory research.

A step towards solving global problems

While new biotechnologies and cost savings are a step in the right direction, significant logistical, political and socio-economic challenges remain in addressing global issues surrounding equitable vaccine distribution and vaccine hesitancy. Marco-Dufort's motives weren't intimidated. His childhood in the Democratic Republic of the Congo made him acutely aware of the need for vaccines against infectious diseases, not only against Covid-19, but also against polio, meningitis and Ebola. He is more aware than most of the enormous challenges people living in sub-Saharan Africa face in accessing vaccines for infectious diseases that are still prevalent.

The work of Mark Tibbitt, Bruno Marco-Dufort and their team represents a substantial advance in the development of vaccine excipients. Their work also offers a glimmer of hope for a positive social impact. Even a slight easing of economic factors related to the distribution of vaccines, drugs, and biomedical research could have a greater impact in the future.

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Source: Xianji.com

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