(Press-News.org) Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have developed a new silk-based stabilizer that, in the laboratory, kept some vaccines and antibiotics stable up to temperatures of 140 degrees Fahrenheit. This provides a new avenue toward eliminating the need to keep some vaccines and antibiotics refrigerated, which could save billions of dollars every year and increase accessibility to third world populations.
Vaccines and antibiotics often need to be refrigerated to prevent alteration of their chemical structures; such alteration can result in less potent or ineffective medications. By immobilizing their bioactive molecules using silk protein matrices, researchers were able to protect and stabilize both live vaccines and antibiotics when stored at higher than recommended temperatures for periods far longer than recommended.
The research was led by grantees of NIH's National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), David Kaplan, Ph.D., and Jeney Zhang, Ph.D. candidate, at Tufts University School of Engineering in Medford, Mass. The National Eye Institute and the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research at NIH also contributed to this research. The researchers reported on their findings in the online issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on July 9, 2012.
"This truly exciting development is the culmination of years of creative exploration and research focused on a major problem in the delivery of health care. Dr. Kaplan and his team have done a masterful job at both understanding the key properties of silk, and applying these insights to a global medical challenge," said NIBIB Director Roderic I. Pettigrew, Ph.D., M.D. "This is also a wonderful validation of the type of team science we see in our Biotechnology Resource and Development Centers and their ability to combine cutting edge science in a number of fields to a variety of health needs."
Pettigrew also points out that the next step is to test it in the field.
Keeping medications cold from production until they are used in treatment is a costly process, accounting for as much as 80 percent of the price of vaccinations. The need for a cold chain has been a difficulty for health care providers, aid organizations, scientists and pharmaceutical companies for decades, especially in settings where electricity is limited. Failures in the chain result in the loss of nearly half of all global vaccines, according to researchers.
In an attempt to solve this problem, Kaplan and his lab have been working extensively with silk films that essentially wrap up the live bioactive molecules present in antibiotics and vaccines. This protects these essential bioactive elements, and so can greatly extend the shelf-life of the medication. Silk is used because it is a protein polymer with a chemistry, structure, and assembly that can generate a unique environment, making it an attractive candidate for the stabilization of bioactive molecules over extended periods of time.
To test their new silk stabilizers, Kaplan's team stored the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccines for six months at the recommended 39.2 degrees Fahrenheit, as well as at 77, 98.6 , and 113 degrees Fahrenheit. The results show that encapsulation in the new silk films maintained the potency with minimal loss over time and enhanced stability, even at very high storage temperatures. Similarly, antibiotics entrapped in silk films maintained near optimal activity even at temperatures as high as 140 degrees. In addition, Kaplan's group found that these silk films had the added benefit of protecting one antibiotic against the detrimental effects of light exposure.
The silk stabilizers are likely to combine well with Kaplan's previously developed silk microneedle system. These tiny needles can deliver medication directly to skin cells that contain a specified antigen. This targeted approach permits administration of lower doses of medication or vaccine and generates longer-lasting immune responses. The combination could prove to be a simple way to stabilize, distribute, and deliver the medication in one system.
Thus, for vaccines and antibiotics, the use of a silk carrier reduces the detrimental effects of heat and humidity.
"New studies are already under way," says Dr. Kaplan. "We have already begun trying to broaden the impact of what we're doing to apply to all vaccines. Based on what we've seen with other proteins, peptides, and enzymes, there's no reason to believe that this wouldn't be universal. This could potentially eliminate the need for a cold-chain system, greatly decreasing costs and enabling more widespread availability of these life-saving drugs."
###
About the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering: NIBIB's mission is to support multidisciplinary research and research training at the crossroads of engineering and the biological and physical sciences. NIBIB supports emerging technology research and development within its internal laboratories and through grants, collaborations, and training. More information is available at the NIBIB website: http://www.nibib.nih.gov/.
About the National Eye Institute (NEI): NEI is the federal government's lead agency for vision research that leads to sight-saving treatments and plays a key role in reducing visual impairment and blindness. For more information, visit the NEI Web site at www.nei.nih.gov.
About the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR): NIDCR is the Nation's leading funder of research on oral, dental, and craniofacial health. To learn more about NIDCR visit www.nidcr.nih.gov.
About the National Institutes of Health: NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.
END
Marine scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have linked the decline in growth of Caribbean forereef corals — due to recent warming — to long-term trends in seawater temperature experienced by these corals located on the ocean-side of the reef. The research was conducted on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System in southern Belize.
The results were revealed online in the July 8 issue of Nature Climate Change, a journal that publishes research on the impacts of global climate change and its implications for the economy, policy and the world at large. ...
New research from Norris Cotton Cancer Center estimates, for the first time, the impact of an R rating for movie smoking. James Sargent, MD, co-director of the Cancer Control Research Program at Norris Cotton Cancer Center, emphasizes that an R rating for any film showing smoking could substantially reduce smoking onset in U.S. adolescents -- an effect size similar to making all parents maximally authoritative in their parenting, Sargent says.
"Smoking is a killer. Its connection to cancer, heart attacks, and chronic lung disease is beyond doubt. Kids start to smoke before ...
Researchers have discovered yet another way to harvest small amounts of electricity from motion in the world around us – this time by capturing the electrical charge produced when two different kinds of plastic materials rub against one another. Based on flexible polymer materials, this "triboelectric" generator could provide alternating current (AC) from activities such as walking.
The triboelectric generator could supplement power produced by nanogenerators that use the piezoelectric effect to create current from the flexing of zinc oxide nanowires. And because these ...
PITTSBURGH—Drivers can struggle to see when driving at night in a rainstorm or snowstorm, but a smart headlight system invented by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute can improve visibility by constantly redirecting light to shine between particles of precipitation.
The system, demonstrated in laboratory tests, prevents the distracting and sometimes dangerous glare that occurs when headlight beams are reflected by precipitation back toward the driver.
"If you're driving in a thunderstorm, the smart headlights will make it seem like it's a ...
Newer technologies designed to help people with type 1 diabetes monitor their blood sugar levels daily work better than traditional methods and require fewer painful needle sticks, new Johns Hopkins research suggests.
The research findings, published online in the July 10 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, suggest that even though these diabetic control technologies are more costly, people with diabetes who use an insulin pump are more satisfied with their treatment and quality of life than those who give themselves insulin shots many times a day.
Researchers ...
In 1928, chemists Otto Diels and Kurt Alder first documented diene synthesis, a chemical reaction important for synthesizing many polymers, alkaloids and steroids. Their work on this mechanism, which came to be known as the Diels–Alder reaction, won them the 1950 Nobel Prize in chemistry.
Since then, the iconic reaction has become the most commonly used and studied mechanism in organic chemistry. But what happens during the reaction has never been entirely clear.
Now, Kendall N. Houk, UCLA's Saul Winstein Professor of Organic Chemistry, and colleagues report exactly ...
A new study suggests that echocardiography be included as part of screenings to help identify student athletes with heart problems that could lead to sudden death.
The Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center study, presented recently at the annual meeting of the American Society of Echocardiography, suggests adding a modified echo to the current practice of taking an EKG, getting a family history and having a physical exam.
"EKG is a good tool, but may not be sensitive enough to catch problems that could lead to sudden death," says Michelle Grenier, MD, a physician ...
Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, working with Danish researchers, have developed a novel anticancer drug designed to travel -- undetected by normal cells -- through the bloodstream until activated by specific cancer proteins. The drug, made from a weedlike plant, has been shown to destroy cancers and their direct blood supplies, acting like a "molecular grenade," and sparing healthy blood vessels and tissues.
In laboratory studies, researchers said they found that a three-day course of the drug, called G202, reduced the size of human prostate tumors ...
CAIRNS, Australia and STANFORD, California – 9 July 2012 -- Like their warrior ancestors, leaders of many Pacific Island nations have been making efforts to safeguard their countries, this time by sounding an alarm as the impact of climate change becomes more apparent. Today their efforts received a big boost with the release of a Scientific Consensus Statement on Climate Change and Coral Reefs that is supported by over 2,400 scientists, showing the threats that reef corals are under across the globe and calling for governments worldwide to take steps to protect valuable ...
Many of the predictions we make in everyday life are vague, and we often get them wrong because we have incomplete information, such as when we
predict the weather.
But in quantum mechanics, even if all the information is available, the
outcomes of certain experiments generally can't be predicted perfectly beforehand.
This inability to accurately predict the results of experiments in
quantum physics has been the subject of a long debate, going back to
Einstein and co-workers, about whether quantum mechanics is the best way
to predict outcomes.
Researchers from ...
