MAPS technology may generate vaccines conferring strong immunity at reduced cost and risk
A new method of vaccine design, called the Multiple Antigen Presentation System (MAPS), may result in vaccines that bring together the benefits of whole-cell and acellular or defined subunit vaccination. The method, pioneered by researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital, permits rapid construction of new vaccines that activate mulitple arms of the immune system simultaneously against one or more pathogens, generating robust immune protection with a lower risk of adverse effects.
As reported by Fan Zhang, PhD, Ying-Jie Lu, PhD, and Richard Malley, MD, from Boston Children’s Division of Infectious Disease, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on July 29, the method could speed development of new vaccines for a range of globally serious pathogens, or infectious agents.
Broadly speaking, the vaccines available today fall into two categories: whole-cell vaccines, which rely on weakened or killed bacteria or viruses; and acellular or subunit vaccines, which include a limited number of antigens—portions of a pathogen that trigger an immune response. Both approaches have advantages and disadvantages.
“Whole-cell vaccines elicit a broad range of immune responses, often just as an infection would, but can cause side effects and are hard to standardize,” said Malley. “Acellular vaccines can provide good early immunity with less risk of side effects, but the immune responses they induce wane with time.”
The MAPS method may allow vaccine developers to take a middle ground, where they can link multiple protein and polysaccharide (sugar) antigens from one or more pathogens together in a modular fashion, much as one would connect Lego blocks.
The resulting complex—which resembles a scaffold of polysaccharides studded with proteins—can stimulate both antibody and T-cell responses simultaneously much like whole-cell vaccines, resulting in stronger immunity to the source pathogen(s). However, because the composition of a MAPS vaccine is well defined and based on the use of isolated antigens (as one would find with an acellular vaccine) the risk of side effects should be greatly reduced.
For instance, mice injected with a MAPS vaccine combining proteins from tuberculosis (TB) and polysaccharides from Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) mounted vigorous antibody and T-cell responses against TB, whereas those vaccinated with TB protein antigens alone mounted only an antibody response.
Similarly, 90 percent of mice given a MAPS-based vaccine containing multiple pneumococcal polysaccharide and protein antigens were protected from a lethal pneumococcus infection, mounting strong antibody and T-cell responses against the bacteria. By contrast, 30 percent of mice vaccinated with the same antigens in an unbound state survived the same challenge.
“The MAPS technology gives you the advantages of: whole-cell vaccines while being much more deliberate about which antigens you include; doing it in a quantitative and precise way; and including a number of antigens so as to try to replicate the effectiveness of whole-cell vaccination,” Malley explained. “The immunogenicity of these constructs is greater than the sum of their parts, somewhat because they are presented to the host as particles.”
The system relies on the interactions of two compounds, biotin and rhizavidin, rather than covalent binding as is used in most of the current conjugate vaccines. To build a MAPS vaccine, biotin is bound to the polysaccharide(s) of choice and rhizavidin to the protein(s). The biotin and rhizavidin then bind together through an affinity interaction analogous to Velcro. The construction process is highly efficient, significantly reducing the time and cost of vaccine development and production.
The Latest Bing News on:
Vaccine design
- R21 anti-malaria vaccine is a game changer: scientist who helped design it reflects on 30 years of research, and what it promiseson April 28, 2024 at 1:00 am
More than 600,000 people die of malaria each year. With low-cost, very effective vaccines being deployed we should be able to get this down to 200,000 or less by the end of this decade then the ...
- R21 Anti-Malaria Vaccine: A Breakthrough in the Fight Against a Deadly Diseaseon April 27, 2024 at 11:12 pm
Anti-malaria medication only lasts for days and parasites are building up resistance against these drugs as well.There are about 40 million children born every year in malaria areas in Africa who ...
- A vaccine to combat antibiotic resistanceon April 27, 2024 at 2:00 pm
A team of researchers at Michigan State University have outlined an approach to combating a prevalent public health issue: the development of treatment-res | Technology ...
- Q&A: Scientist who helped design R21 anti-malaria vaccine reflects on 30 years of research, and what it promiseson April 25, 2024 at 9:17 am
Until three years ago nobody had developed a vaccine against any parasitic disease. Now there are two against malaria: the RTS,S and the R21 vaccines.
- Africa: R21 Anti-Malaria Vaccine Is a Game Changer - Scientist Who Helped Design It Reflects On 30 Years of Research, and What It Promiseson April 24, 2024 at 11:10 pm
Analysis - Until three years ago nobody had developed a vaccine against any parasitic disease. Now there are two against malaria: the RTS,S and the R21 vaccines.
- IISc researchers design an antigen that boosts antibody production against cancer cellson April 24, 2024 at 7:30 pm
IISc researchers design an antigen that boosts antibody production against cancer cells: Nandita Vijayasimha, Bengaluru Thursday, April 25, 2024, 08:00 Hrs [IST] Researchers at th ...
- World Immunization Week 2024: mRNA vaccines hold potential in multiple disease areason April 24, 2024 at 8:02 am
According to GlobalData, there are currently 507 prophylactic vaccines in late-stage development for a wide range of infectious diseases.
- Ugandan scientists start designing new HIV vaccineon April 24, 2024 at 4:31 am
Scientists at the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) have said they are designing an HIV vaccine to address the high burden of the disease.This information comes about four months after the ...
- University of Toronto scientists appointed as GSK chairs will advance drug delivery research and vaccine education tools for healthcare professionalson April 23, 2024 at 6:52 am
The University of Toronto's Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy has announced the appointments of two leading scientists as endowed GSK research chairs. These appointments represent the collaborative ...
- Revolutionizing Vaccine Design: A Game-Changing Discoveryon April 15, 2024 at 12:00 pm
In the quest for more effective vaccines, the UC Riverside researchers focused on a fundamental aspect of viral behavior—how viruses evade detection within host cells. They identified a mechanism ...
The Latest Google Headlines on:
Vaccine design
[google_news title=”” keyword=”Vaccine design” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
The Latest Bing News on:
MAPS-based vaccine
- Vaccine Advances Could Help Decrease Influenza’s Tollon April 26, 2024 at 5:00 pm
13 In contrast to antigenic drift, egg adaption is more readily addressable due to innovation in influenza vaccine manufacturing. In particular, the use of cell-based influenza vaccines is ...
- New cancer vaccine: Doctor explains all you need to knowon April 26, 2024 at 6:39 am
Doctor Amir Khan described the vaccine as “positive news” as he discussed how it works when he appeared on Good Morning Britain on Friday (26 April). Dr Khan said: “What is happening is the ...
- Vaccines Newson April 25, 2024 at 5:00 pm
The study results challenge the idea that mRNA-based vaccine immunity wanes ... Feb. 26, 2024 — A research team has developed a recombinant protein flu vaccine candidate. It utilizes a ...
- Bivalent COVID-19 vaccine boosts immunity but needs to be updatedon April 25, 2024 at 11:53 am
A major bivalent COVID-19 vaccine induces production of neutralizing antibodies against the coronavirus that circulated at the start of the pandemic as well as subvariants of omicron, albeit less ...
- Vaccine breakthrough means no more chasing strainson April 25, 2024 at 11:10 am
Scientists at UC Riverside have devised a vaccine that targets a part of the viral genome that is common to all strains of a given virus.
- Applied DNA Awarded Contract by HDT Bio For Rapid Vaccine Development Programon April 25, 2024 at 6:24 am
Under the terms of the contract, Applied DNA will supply Linea™ DNA IVT templates to HDT Bio for use in conjunction with its LION™ formulated repRNA (self-replicating RNA) vaccination platform. The ...
- A vaccine for bees has an unexpected effecton April 24, 2024 at 1:30 am
Researchers at Dalan, based in Athens, Ga., designed the bee vaccine to protect against American foulbrood — a fatal disease caused by a spore-forming bacterium called Paenibacillus larvae.
- How pharmacists can help you stay up to date on vaccineson April 18, 2024 at 2:20 pm
Safeway Albertsons pharmacies offer every vaccine approved by the FDA and CDC, and no appointment is required. Sponsored by Safeway Albertsons.
- Plant-Based Vaccines Market Exclusive Report with Detailed Study Analysison April 17, 2024 at 5:00 pm
The ability of plant-derived vaccines to improve patient immunity and general health, as well as their increased use due to their lower cost and larger production capacity when compared to traditional ...
- Genetics-based universal vaccine could be effective against any viral strainon April 16, 2024 at 7:32 am
Genetics-based "one-and-done" vaccines for the flu and COVID-19 could prove more effective and easier to craft than current jabs, researchers report.
The Latest Google Headlines on:
MAPS-based vaccine
[google_news title=”” keyword=”MAPS-based vaccine” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]