New vaccine technology must protect us better against infectious respiratory infections

Researchers from the University of Copenhagen and ExpreS2ion Biotechnologies have received 29 million DKK from Innovation Fund Denmark to develop new vaccines against contagious respiratory infections such as influenza.

The recent years with the coronavirus and the eternal fight against the flu have probably left no doubt that the world needs rapidly developed and effective vaccines that can put an end to the highly contagious respiratory infections.

But the vaccines we have today do not actually protect in the way that is most optimal.

- The vaccines we have today typically provide what we can call systemic immunity. This is achieved by inserting a needle under the skin or into a muscle. This is, for example, what we know from the vaccines against the coronavirus, explains Søren Buus, who is a professor at the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at the University of Copenhagen.

But that type of vaccine fights infection in the tissue and not in the mucous membranes, which is where, for example, the coronavirus and influenza virus enter the body.

- So there is a difference between what we need and what we actually get when we have to immunize against viruses that infect through the mucous membranes. It is therefore also characteristic that systemic immunity against mucosal infections is short-lived, he says.

Faster and cheaper vaccines

Instead, the researchers will develop a vaccine that can be taken either as a nasal spray or through inhalation. It provides direct protection of the mucous membranes, which are where the airborne, infectious diseases settle. Although we already know this from childhood vaccinations against influenza, they are very resource-intensive to produce.

- About 90% of our current flu vaccines, including the type that provides mucosal immunity that we use today, are made in fertilized chicken eggs. A lot of chicken eggs are therefore used to produce vaccines. And even if you have a lot of eggs, it is a limited resource that cannot deliver if at some point we need a lot of vaccine, as we saw during the swine flu, says Søren Buus.

To accommodate the limited resources, they will build the vaccines in a different way.

- Today, it is possible to make vaccines without using, for example, fertilized chicken eggs. Vaccines can be produced which are good for stimulating the immune system, and which can also be made in very large quantities and purified so that they are completely pure. It is also relatively easy and quick to adjust production so that it is adapted to new and changing needs, says Søren Buus.

The project is i.a. financed by a Grand Solution grant from Innovation Fund Denmark and made in collaboration between Søren Buus, Jan Pravsgaard Christensen and Allan Randrup Thomsen, professors at the University of Copenhagen, and partners at ExpreS2ion Biotechnologies; a biotech company located in DTU Forskerpark in Hørsholm with a focus on vaccine development.