The development of new oral vaccines using porous silica.

Ordered mesoporous silica (OMS) was proved to be an efficient oral adjuvant capable to deliver a wide in size variety of different antigens, promoting efficient immunogenicity. This material can be used in single or polivalent vaccines, which have been developed by a group of Brazilian scientists. The experiments performed with the model protein Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) gave the first promissing results, that were also achieved by testing the virus like particle surface antigen of hepatitis B (HBsAg) and diphtheria anatoxin (dANA). Nanostructured OMS, SBA-15 type, with bi-dimensional hexagonal porous symmetry was used to encapsulate the antigens either in the mesoporous (pore diameter ∼ 10 nm) or macroporous (pore diameter > 50 nm) regions. This silica vehicle proved to be capable to create an inflammatory response, did not exhibit toxicity, being effective to induce immunity in high and low responder mice towards antibody production. The silica particles are in the range of micrometer size, leaving no trace in mice organs due to its easy expulsion by faeces. The methods of physics, usually employed to characterize the structure, composition and morphology of materials are of fundamental importance to develop proper oral vaccines in order to state the ideal antigen load to avoid clustering and to determine the rate of antigen release in different media mimicking body fluids.

Enhanced magnetism and suppressed magnetoelastic coupling induced by electron doping in Ca1-xYxMnReO6.

The Ca2MnReO6double perovskite is a spin-orbit-assisted Mott insulator with exotic magnetic properties, including a largely non-collinear Mn2+spin arrangement and nearly orthogonal coupling between such spins and the much smaller Re 5dmagnetic moments. Here, the electron-doped compound Ca1-xYxMnReO6(x= 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3) is reported and a detailed investigation is conducted forx= 0.3. Neutron and x-ray powder diffraction confirm that nearly full chemical order is maintained at the Mn and Re sites under the Y substitution at the Ca site. X-ray absorption measurements and an analysis of the Mn-O/Re-O bond distances show that the Mn oxidation state remains stable at +2 whereas Re is reduced upon doping. The electron doping increases the magnetic ordering temperature fromTc= 121 to 150 K and also enhances significantly the ferromagnetic component of the Mn spins at the expense of the antiferromagnetic component at the base temperature (T= 3 K). The lattice parameter anomalies atTcobserved in the parent compound are suppressed by the electron doping. The possible reasons for the enhanced magnetism and the suppressed magnetoelastic coupling in Ca1.7Y0.3MnReO6are discussed.

Antigenic and physicochemical characterization of Hepatitis B surface protein under extreme temperature and pH conditions.

Hepatitis B virus causes acute and chronic infections in millions of people worldwide and, since 1982, a vaccine with 95% effectiveness has been available for immunization. The main component of the recombinant hepatitis B vaccine is the surface antigen protein (HBsAg). In this work, the effect of pH, ionic strength and temperature on the native state of the HBsAg antigen were studied by a combination of biophysical methods that included small angle X-ray scattering, synchrotron radiation circular dichroism, fluorescence and surface plasmon resonance spectroscopies, as well as in vivo and in vitro potency assays. The native conformation, morphology, radius of gyration, and antigenic properties of the HBsAg antigen demonstrate high stability to pH treatment, especially in the pH range employed in all stages of HBsAg vaccine production and storage. The HBsAg protein presents thermal melting point close to 56 °C, reaching a more unfolded state after crossing this point, but it only experiences loss of vaccine potency and antigenic properties at 100 °C. Interestingly, a 6-month storage period does not affect vaccine stability, and the results are similar when the protein is kept under refrigerated conditions or at room temperature (20 °C). At frozen temperatures, large aggregates (>200 nm) are formed and possibly cause loss of HBsAg content, but that does not affect the in vivo assay. Furthermore, HBsAg has a well-ordered secondary structure content that is not affected when the protein is formulated with silica SBA-15, targeting the oral delivery of the vaccine. The combined results from all the characterization techniques employed in this study showed the high stability of the antigen at different storage temperature and extreme values of pH. These findings are important for considering the delivery of HBsAg to the immune system via an oral vaccine.

Antigenic and physicochemical characterization of Hepatitis B surface protein under extreme temperature and pH conditions

Hepatitis B virus causes acute and chronic infections in millions of people worldwide and, since 1982, a vaccine with 95% effectiveness has been available for immunization. The main component of the recombinant hepatitis B vaccine is the surface antigen protein (HBsAg). In this work, the effect of pH, ionic strength and temperature on the native state of the HBsAg antigen were studied by a combination of biophysical methods that included small angle X-ray scattering, synchrotron radiation circular dichroism, fluorescence and surface plasmon resonance spectroscopies, as well as in vivo and in vitro potency assays. The native conformation, morphology, radius of gyration, and antigenic properties of the HBsAg antigen demonstrate high stability to pH treatment, especially in the pH range employed in all stages of HBsAg vaccine production and storage. The HBsAg protein presents thermal melting point close to 56°C, reaching a more unfolded state after crossing this point, but it only experiences loss of vaccine potency and antigenic properties at 100°C. Interestingly, a 6-month storage period does not affect vaccine stability, and the results are similar when the protein is kept under refrigerated conditions or at room temperature (20°C). At frozen temperatures, large aggregates (>200nm) are formed and possibly cause loss of HBsAg content, but that does not affect the in vivo assay. Furthermore, HBsAg has a well-ordered secondary structure content that is not affected when the protein is formulated with silica SBA-15, targeting the oral delivery of the vaccine. The combined results from all the characterization techniques employed in this study showed the high stability of the antigen at different storage temperature and extreme values of pH. These findings are important for considering the delivery of HBsAg to the immune system via an oral vaccine.

Antigenic and physicochemical characterization of Hepatitis B surface protein under extreme temperature and pH conditions

Hepatitis B virus causes acute and chronic infections in millions of people worldwide and, since 1982, a vaccine with 95% effectiveness has been available for immunization. The main component of the recombinant hepatitis B vaccine is the surface antigen protein (HBsAg). In this work, the effect of pH, ionic strength and temperature on the native state of the HBsAg antigen were studied by a combination of biophysical methods that included small angle X-ray scattering, synchrotron radiation circular dichroism, fluorescence and surface plasmon resonance spectroscopies, as well as in vivo and in vitro potency assays. The native conformation, morphology, radius of gyration, and antigenic properties of the HBsAg antigen demonstrate high stability to pH treatment, especially in the pH range employed in all stages of HBsAg vaccine production and storage. The HBsAg protein presents thermal melting point close to 56°C, reaching a more unfolded state after crossing this point, but it only experiences loss of vaccine potency and antigenic properties at 100°C. Interestingly, a 6-month storage period does not affect vaccine stability, and the results are similar when the protein is kept under refrigerated conditions or at room temperature (20°C). At frozen temperatures, large aggregates (>200nm) are formed and possibly cause loss of HBsAg content, but that does not affect the in vivo assay. Furthermore, HBsAg has a well-ordered secondary structure content that is not affected when the protein is formulated with silica SBA-15, targeting the oral delivery of the vaccine. The combined results from all the characterization techniques employed in this study showed the high stability of the antigen at different storage temperature and extreme values of pH. These findings are important for considering the delivery of HBsAg to the immune system via an oral vaccine.

Ordered mesoporous silica SBA-15 A new effective adjuvant to induce antibody response

The applicability of SBA-15 mesostructure as an adjuvant and evaluation of its efficiency to induce antibody response, was discussed. It was observed that better encapsulation of biomolecules of variable shape and size can be achieved using a antigen to SBA-15 weight ratio of 1: 2.5. Efficient antibody generation could be achieved because SBA-15 was able to attract antigens effectively due to its high surface area and proper mesopore size. The results show that SBA-15 and related silica mesostructures are promising nanosystems for vaccine delivery.