I-Corps: Enhancing Vaccine Performance

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is substantial improvement of animal health and well-being, food safety, and public health through more effective and safe vaccines. Vaccination is a critical tool for the control of infectious diseases, and new vaccine technologies are needed to address challenges resulting from new emerging infectious diseases and increased restrictions on the use of antibiotics. They are essential for increasing global animal protein production to meet the demand of the growing human population. Nanoparticle-based vaccine adjuvant technology can enhance the performance and safety of vaccines used in food animals. The incorporation of this technology in licensed vaccines will improve animal health and well-being, help to reduce economic losses caused by infectious diseases, and decrease reliance on antibiotics. As many infectious diseases, like influenza, can be transmitted from animals to people, control of these diseases is also critical for the protection of public health.<br/><br/>This I-Corps project is based on a new plant-derived nanoparticle adjuvant technology. Adjuvants are compounds that are added to vaccine formulations to enhance the protective immune response. Current vaccine adjuvants have a number of challenges including lack of efficacy with certain vaccine antigens, instability, non-biodegradable ingredients, and association with adverse effects. Nanoparticles are attractive candidates for new generation vaccine adjuvants, but many nanoparticles are synthesized chemically in the lab, expensive to produce, and difficult to scale up to meet the need of mass vaccinations. Certain varieties of plants have naturally occurring alpha-D-glucan nanoparticles that can be modified to give them immunostimulatory properties. The surface properties of the nanoparticles enables effective activation of immune cells, which contributes to the strong immune protection induced by the vaccines. The fact that the particles naturally exist in plants makes their preparation affordable and easy to scale up, and suitable for use in vaccines. In addition, the naturally occurring particles are stable in formulation, but biodegradable following injection minimizing possible adverse reactions associated with vaccine adjuvants.