BMC Biotechnology article: New method would keep vaccines shelf-stable for longer

BioMed Central (BMC) reports a discovery of a new method of producing vaccines that have a longer shelf-life and are cheaper.

The new method allows the vaccines to be stored without needing cooling. Currently, vaccines need to be refrigerated when they are transported and stored. A lot of vaccines only have a short shelf-life of a few months, the journal reported.

The article was published Jan. 21 in the BMC Biotechnology journal.

“The vaccines that are currently available require constant cold storage, meaning they rely on a temperature-controlled supply chain, which constitutes over 80 percent of their cost," Luis Vaca with Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, the corresponding author of the paper, said in a BMC press release. "We have developed a novel technology to produce vaccines which require no refrigeration and have a shelf life of many years. These vaccines could be transported to regions of the world without electricity and refrigeration."

The the key component in the team's strategy was to use a protein known as polyhedrin, or PH(1-110). The team found that PH(1-110) green fluorescent protein particles stored at room temperature in a dry powder form still generated antibodies.

"The results suggest that PH(1-110) could enable the production of thermostable vaccines that generate a sufficient immune response without the need for an adjuvant, or refrigeration," the press release states.