Preparing vaccines based on ... spider silk

A new study has shown that from spider silk, one can develop a method to help get vaccines straight to white blood cells in the body, thereby strengthening the immune system against cancer. and serious infections .

Immunotherapy for the treatment of diseases

Immunotherapy is a type of therapy that is widely used in the treatment of cancers. This treatment aims to boost the body's immune system against tumors. Although the drugs used are inhibitors of control points in cancer pathogenesis or cell cultures, immune therapy primarily affects T lymphocyte cells .

Our body's immune system consists mainly of two types of white blood cells, B lymphocytes and T lymphocytes. The first type is active in many types of infections, while the latter type has to be activated to fight cancer. letter or more serious infections, such as tuberculosis. However, T lymphocytes are more difficult to activate than B lymphocytes and therefore to activate them, a type of peptide must be injected into the body, but this substance is often degraded before reaching its destination. desired impact.

Spider silk is an inspiration for a new study to create vaccines that are more effective at immunizing.

And special materials from spider silk

Scientists have now created microcapsules containing vaccines made from a different material, synthetic spider silk . Research of GS. Carole Bourquin - expert on anti-cancer immunotherapy at the University of Geneva (Switzerland) said that in order to develop effective immunotherapy against cancer, it is necessary to create a significant response in T lymphocytes. Because current vaccines have only limited effects on T lymphocytes, the development of other immunization methods to overcome this problem is very important.

GS. Bourquin and her team used synthetic biopolymer types derived from spider silk. Spider silk is a particularly elastic and firm material. In fact, scientists think this material is five times stronger than steel when they are the same size. A scientist in the research group is Thomas Scheibel - expert on spider silk (recombinant spider silk eADF4 - C16) at Bayreuth University, Germany, said they have created this special type of silk in the laboratory. to be able to insert an active vaccine peptide into the living body. The carrier subtypes made of this spider silk are fused with peptides with antigenic activity from egg white albumin, with or without the cleavable cathepsin peptide. These particles are captured by dendritic cells and successfully activate toxic T lymphocytes without causing any signs of immune toxicity or non-specific immunostimulatory activity. When injected under the skin, these particles are captured by dendritic cells and accumulate in lymph nodes - the site of the immune response. These subtypes contain a type of cathepsin bridge that can cleave and activate a strong proliferation (antigen specific) of cytotoxic T lymphocytes on the living organism, even without it. face of adjuvant.

This study has demonstrated the efficacy of a new protein-derived immunization, in which small particles made of spider silk act as carriers and integrate an antigen-active peptide. On the other hand, this new vaccination strategy is very stable, easy to re-produce flexibly. The scientists also added other advantages of using this synthetic spider biopolymer, which is that they have high heat resistance up to 1000C, so it is very convenient for storage. In addition, microparticle types made from this material could theoretically allow researchers to develop vaccinated vaccines without any adjuvant. other.

Scientists acknowledge that a possible limitation of the above method is in the size of micro-particles. Therefore, subsequent studies need to determine whether greater antigens can be integrated into the microcapsules made from this material.