Nanotechnology makes it possible to create a nasal vaccine against hepatitis B

A new non-injectable immunization strategy against hepatitis B has been developed by researchers from the Centre for Neuroscience and Cell Biology (CNC) of the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Coimbra in collaboration with the University of Geneva. The formula is a vaccine in the form of a nasal spray.

Hepatitis B is an infectious disease transmitted by exposure to the blood or body fluids of a person carrying the HBV virus. Once infected, the virus affects liver cells and can lead to death. The World Health Organization estimates that every year hepatitis B-related diseases are responsible for the deaths of 780,000 people worldwide.

In developing countries where financial and human resources are scarce to cover the costs of administering injectable vaccines, nasal immunization is a cheaper and safer alternative. This therapy also eliminates the risk of infection caused by the reuse of syringes when administering injections.

Olga Borges, a researcher at the CNC's Vectors and Gene Therapy Group, and one of the coordinators of this project, explains that the genetic vaccine designed in the form of a nasal spray has a composition based on "plasmids". These are molecules that are theoretically more resistant to variations in the body's temperature, which transmit genetic information (DNA) to the inside of cells, activating the defense mechanisms against the hepatitis B virus. In the process, the therapeutic molecules are transported in polymeric nanoparticles from the nasal mucosa to the inside of the cells.

In the CNC press release, the researcher highlights the possibilities opened up by the research. "The nanoparticles developed could also be used in the composition of vaccines that prevent sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), because they induce the production of antibodies by our bodies in the vaginal mucosa more effectively than injectable vaccines," she says.

The process of inducing antibodies via the nasal route was tested on mice, which, using this formulation, returned an immune response. The nasal route was shown to have "a greater capacity to induce antibodies in the mucosa of the reproductive organs" than the oral route.

This line of research began in 2003 with the development of nanoparticles for the production of non-injectable vaccines. In 2012 it was funded by FCT within the scope of R&D projects in the area of Bioengineering, Biotechnology and Biochemistry.

The work has been published in the renowned scientific journal "Molecular Pharmaceutics".

More information at: 

Announcement Nasal spray against hepatitis B | Center for Neuroscience and Biology (CNC)

Article "Intranasal Administration of Novel Chitosan Nanoparticle/DNA Complexes Induces Antibody Response to Hepatitis B Surface Antigen in Mice" | Molecular Pharmaceutics