This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: RNA vaccines, which have proved effective against COVID-19, are now being developed for many other diseases, including cancer. One drawback is that they require ultracold storage, but MIT researchers have found a promising way to overcome that limitation.
With help from an AI algorithm, the researchers adjusted the formulation of lipid nanoparticles typically used to deliver mRNA vaccines, making the vaccines more heat-resistant. Using this approach, they formulated vaccines that could remain stable when stored at room temperature for up to a year or at nearly 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) for two months. When COVID-19 vaccines carried by these particles were administered to mice, they generated an immune response just as strong as that from an RNA COVID-19 vaccine similar to one developed by Moderna.
By using the AI algorithm to predict optimal formulations for the particles, the researchers reduced the number of experiments they needed to conduct, speeding up development. "The real beauty of this algorithm is that we can use it with small data sets," says Ana Jaklenec, a principal investigator in MIT's Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. "It's really hard to run thousands of experiments, so this algorithm allows us to more easily achieve formulations with features that we want—in this case, stability." Jaklenec and Robert Langer, the David H.
Koch Institute Professor, are the senior authors of the paper, which appears in Nature Biotechnology. Graduate student Jinbi Tian and postdoc Khanh Tran are the lead authors. RNA is a highly fragile molecule, so researchers stabilize it with lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) that protect the RNA from degradation and help it get into cells.
However, these RNA-LNP vaccines still need to be kept cold (-20 to -80 degrees Celsius, or -4 to -112 degrees Fahrenheit), making them difficult to ship to regions without cold-storage facilities. Making these vaccines more heat-tolerant would not only enable wider distribution but could also help researchers develop vaccines administered through methods such as microneedle patches. The patches contain hundreds of vaccine-filled microneedles that dissolve when applied to the skin, releasing the vaccine.
To create more stable RNA vaccines, researchers have experimented with adding a variety of excipients—sugars, salts or polymers—to the LNPs. Jaklenec and Langer recently developed polymer-stabilized LNPs that can withstand higher temperatures, but those LNPs were slightly different from the FDA-approved formulations used for the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines. In their new paper, the researchers wanted to see whether they could make those FDA-approved formulations more stable at high temperatures.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
