Needle-Free: New Nano-Vaccine Effective Against All COVID-19 Variants

A new nano-vaccine developed by TAU and the University of Lisbon offers a needle-free, room-temperature-storable solution against COVID-19, targeting all key variants effectively.

Professor Ronit Satchi-Fainaro's lab at Tel Aviv University's Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences has collaborated with Professor Helena Florindo's lab at the University of Lisbon to develop a novel nano-vaccine for COVID-19. This nano-vaccine, a 200-nanometer particle, effectively trains the immune system against all common COVID-19 variants, performing as well as existing vaccines.

Unlike other vaccines, it is conveniently administered as a nasal spray and does not require a cold supply chain or ultra-cold storage. These distinctive features pave the way for vaccinating populations in developing countries and the future development of simpler, more effective, and less expensive vaccines. The groundbreaking study was featured on the cover of the prestigious journal Advanced Science.

Development and Design of the Nano-Vaccine

Prof. Satchi-Fainaro explains: "The new nano-vaccine's development was inspired by a decade of research on cancer vaccines. When the COVID-19 pandemic began, we set a new goal: training our cancer platform to identify and target the coronavirus. Unlike Moderna and Pfizer, we did not rely on full protein expression via mRNA. Instead, using our computational bioinformatics tools, we identified two short and simple amino acid sequences in the virus's protein, then synthesized them, and encapsulated them in nanoparticles." Eventually, this nano-vaccine proved effective against all major variants of COVID-19, including Beta, Delta, Omicron, etc.

Benefits of the Nano-Vaccine: Needle-Free Administration

"Our nano-vaccine offers a significant advantage over existing vaccines because it is needle-free and administered as a nasal spray," notes Prof. Satchi-Fainaro. "This eliminates the need for skilled personnel such as nurses and technicians to administer injections, while also reducing risks of contamination and sharp waste. Anyone can use a nasal spray, with no prior training."

Advantages in Storage and Shipping

Another major advantage of the revolutionary nano-vaccine is its minimal storage requirements. Moderna's sensitive mRNA-based vaccine must be kept at -20°C and Pfizer's at -70°C, generating great logistic and technological challenges, such as shipping in special aircraft and ultra-cold storage – from the factory to the vaccination station.

Prof. Satchi-Fainaro's novel synthetic nanoparticles are far more durable and can be stored as a powder at room temperature. "There's no need for freezing or special handling," she says. "You just mix the powder with saline to create the spray. For testing purposes (as part of the EU's ISIDORe (Integrated Services for Infectious Disease Outbreak Research) feasibility program) we shipped the powder at room temperature to the INSERM infectious diseases lab in France. Their tests showed that our nano-vaccine is at least as effective as Pfizer's vaccine."

Future Implications and Expanding Applications

These important advantages—ease of nasal administration and regular storage and shipping — pave the way towards vaccinating at-risk populations in low-income countries and remote regions, which existing vaccines are unable to reach. Moreover, the novel platform opens the door for quickly synthesizing even more effective and affordable vaccines for future pandemics. "This is a plug-and-play technology," explains Prof. Satchi-Fainaro. "It can train the immune system to fight cancer or infectious diseases like COVID-19. We are currently expanding its use to target a range of additional diseases, enabling the rapid development of relevant new vaccines when needed."

Reference: "Intranasal Multiepitope PD-L1-siRNA-Based Nanovaccine: The Next-Gen COVID-19 Immunotherapy" by Rita C. Acúrcio, Ron Kleiner, Daniella Vaskovich-Koubi, Bárbara Carreira, Yulia Liubomirski, Carolina Palma, Adva Yeheskel, Eilam Yeini, Ana S. Viana, Vera Ferreira, Carlos Araújo, Michael Mor, Natalia T. Freund, Eran Bacharach, João Gonçalves, Mira Toister-Achituv, Manon Fabregue, Solene Matthieu, Capucine Guerry, Ana Zarubica, Sarit Aviel-Ronen, Helena F. Florindo and Ronit Satchi-Fainaro, 8 August 2024, Advanced Science.
DOI: 10.1002/advs.202404159

The groundbreaking project has received competitive research grants from the Israel Innovation Authority and Merck under the Nofar program, as well as funding from Spain's "La Caixa" Foundation Impulse as an accelerated program, and support from the ISIDORe feasibility program. It is also part of a broader vaccine platform development program at Professor Satchi-Fainaro's lab, supported by a European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant.