A team of researchers has developed an inhalable vaccine that successfully protects against the COVID virus. It also opens the door to delivering other messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics for gene replacement therapy and other treatments in the lungs.
, the researchers demonstrated that two intranasal doses of the treatment, made with nanoparticles carrying mRNA COVID vaccine, is effective in mice. It also demonstrates that an inhalable delivery system allows for minimally invasive and lung-targeted mRNA delivery, potentially applicable for numerous pulmonary diseases in addition to COVID.
Also, in the past, the nanoparticles that deliver the mRNA have caused inflammation and other problems. The Saltzman group got around this hurdle in part by using a nanoparticle made from poly polyplexes, or PACE, a biocompatible and highly customizable polymer. "We just gave two doses, a prime and a boost, intranasally, and we got a highly protective immune response. But we also showed that, generally, you can deliver different kinds of mRNA. So it's not just good for a vaccine, but potentially also good forin diseases like cystic fibrosis and gene editing. We used a vaccine example to show that it works, but it opens the door to doing all these other kinds of interventions.
"It's been a challenge trying to take the lipid nanoparticle vaccine delivery systems and make them active through the nose as well," Saltzman said."One of the advantages we have is that the PACE polymer that we're using seems to be much milder, and much better tolerated in the lung than lipidA previous study from the Saltzman lab characterized PACE polymers with various chemical end-groups.
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