Inhalable Tuberculosis Vaccine Developed

Imagine a world where vaccines are no longer injected - and can be used effectively in the battle to prevent tuberculosis infection. Imagine a world, where vaccines can be transported without worrying that it will be destroyed by heat. Imagine a world, where virtually anyone could be immunized against virulent diseases. According to a study published in the early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, such a world could be shortly on the way, if the research of scientists form University of North Carolina and Harvard turns into a viable means for immunization.

"It is at least as good as the injectable vaccine," said Tony Hickey in a press release from UNC at Chapel Hill. Hickey is a professor in the UNC School of Pharmacy's molecular pharmaceutics division. "The real advantage is that this vaccine does not need to be refrigerated. It also doesn't require needles, syringes and water like the injectable vaccine, and administering it is as easy as breathing in, making it ideal for use in developing countries."

Using a spray-drying technique instead of the freeze-drying technique currently used to produce powdered vaccines, the team of researchers was able to produce a nanoparticle-sized vaccine against tuberculosis which tested effective in preventing the dread lung disease in guinea pigs. The vaccine used is one already in production, but manufactured using the freeze-drying technique.

With the current freeze-drying technique, the size of the particles - and their ability to be inhaled and absorbed through the lungs - is virtually impossible, and the freeze-dried antigens have to be refrigerated before being reconstituted with water for injection.

Estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimate over one-third of the world's population is infected with tuberculosis, with 9 million new infections annually - and nearly a quarter, or 2 million people, die from the disease every year. WHO started its Stop TB Initiative in January 2006, with the goal of halving the number of new cases of tuberculosis by 2015, and eradicating the disease by 2050.

Co-authors of the study include UNC School of Pharmacy research assistant professor Lucila Garcia-Contreras, Ph.D., and postdoctoral fellows Pavan Muttil and Danielle Padilla. Other contributors include Barry R. Bloom and Sunali Goonesekera of the Harvard School of Public Health; Jessica DeRousse, David Edwards, Katharina Elbert, and Yun-Ling Wong of the Harvard University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences; Jerry Sadoff of the Aeras Global Tuberculosis Vaccine Foundation; Bernard Fourie and Willem Andreas Germishuizen of Medicine in Need South Africa; and Rich Miller of Manta Devices.