Scientists Design Nanoparticle for Safer and More Effective Vaccine Delivery

Engineers at MIT have designed a new type of nanoparticle that could safely and effectively deliver vaccines for diseases such as HIV and malaria. The new particles, described in the Feb. 20 issue of Nature Materials, consist of concentric fatty spheres that can carry synthetic versions of proteins normally produced by viruses. They elicit a strong immune response comparable to that produced by live virus vaccines, but without the safety concerns of live viruses. Such particles could help scientists develop vaccines against cancer, as well as infectious diseases.

In collaboration with scientists at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, the MIT engineers are now testing the nanoparticles’ ability to deliver an experimental malaria vaccine in mice. In tests with mice, the engineers used the nanoparticles to deliver a protein called ovalbumin, an egg-white protein commonly used in immunology studies. Three immunizations of low doses of the vaccine produced a strong T cell response in the mice, and after immunization, up to 30 percent of all killer T cells in the mice were specific to the vaccine protein.

In addition to the malaria studies, MIT engineers are working on developing the nanoparticles to deliver cancer and HIV vaccines.