Chinese Scientists Uncover Game-Changing Adjuvant Molecules to Create Powerful Vaccines
A group of scientists from China have managed to make an incredible progress- they figured out how to make two powerful ingredients for vaccines, called adjuvants, using a combination of computer technology and machine learning. These substances work in a special way to help the body’s immune system recognize and fight off illnesses like cancer. An experiment conducted with these new types of adjuvants showed that animals exposed to them created better defenses against certain forms of cancer as reported in the journal Angewandte Chemie.
Adjuvants help make vaccinations more powerful and longer-lasting. For many years, using aluminum salts has been an effective adjuvant technique. Another adjuvant method is mixing oils with water to activate special receptors on immune cells. But earlier versions of this weren’t great because they often didn’t work very well and had bad side effects. Now, the newest versions are both strong AND safe but they must be tailored to each individual vaccine.
A team of scientists from several scientific institutes and universities, such as Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences and the Capital Medical University, have developed two new substances that can help people’s body strengthen its protection against vaccines. These substances work using a combination of technology like computer-aided molecular design and machine learning.
The new molecule is designed to attach to toll-like receptors. These are proteins that dendritic cells use to detect disease-causing germs. When the “enemy” (germ) is located, the dendritic cell carries it into a lymph node and shows its find to the T-cells. The activated T-cells then make copies of themselves and call on more immune cells to help fight against the germ.
The team figured out what structures were needed to stick to human TLRs and made a special collection of 46 different molecules called ligands. All these molecules were attached to small pieces of gold called nanoparticles so that the TLR could more easily hold them. Two of these molecules were extra effective. Researchers did lots of experiments which showed that these two molecules can attach themselves to different types of TLR and increase how cells are activated, like when they show foreign things to T-cells.
Some special medicine called tumor-specific antigens were combined with a new type of medicine called an adjuvant, and they were tested on mice. The tests showed that the mice had strong protection against cancer, which stopped the tumors from growing and traveling around the body.
These new types of adjuvants could help make current vaccines more powerful and may mean that people wouldn’t need booster doses of those vaccines. They might also be helpful in treating cancer with immunotherapy.
Researchers recently worked on discovering stronger vaccines, and their work was published in a journal called Angewandte Chemie International Edition. Juan Ma, Shenqing Wang, Chuanfang Zhao, Xiliang Yan, Quanzhong Ren, Zheng Dong, Jiahuang Qiu, Yin Liu, Qing’e Shan, Ming Xu, Bing Yan and Sijin Liu were all credited for this study. The details of this discovery can be found at the DOI 10.1002/anie.202301059.
This study was funded by some very important people and organizations like the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Key Research and Development Program of China, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and The Pearl River Talent Recruitment Program. It was done to investigate lacrimal glands as a possible source for infection with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).
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2. The role of a DNA damage marker called γH2AX when the eye’s vessels become bigger than usual
3. How Interleukin-6 helps regenerate and heal the surface of the eye for diabetic mice
4. Comparing different levels of streptozotocin to see its impact on diabetes-related issues with eyes
1. We looked at how much people in China have vaccined against HIV since they were children.
2. Scientists are looking for drugs that might help deal with some diseases caused by the new coronavirus.
3. They studied if it’s safe to get a vaccine for protecting us from the coronavirus.
4. Researchers tested to see if an influenza virus could be used as a vaccinner for brucellosis which is another virus, using guinea pigs as test subjects.
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