A team of researchers from three Fraunhofer Institutes has developed a method of producing vaccines that is faster, more efficient and more environmentally friendly than the conventional production process.
Vaccines date back to 1796, and the first vaccines were simply pus samples freshly taken from people with cowpox. Gruesomely, the Spanish shipped orphaned children to South America to act as cowpox carriers — the world’s first vaccine shipment. As medicine advanced, scientists were able to isolate viruses and inactivate them. However, this is still a lengthy, expensive process.
But a new production process for inactivated vaccines is set to make vaccine production faster, more environmentally friendly and more efficient than ever before while also reducing costs. Dr Sebastian Ulbert and Dr Jasmin Fertey from the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology IZI in Leipzig, Frank-Holm Rögner from the Fraunhofer Institute for Organic Electronics, Electron Beam and Plasma Technology FEP in Dresden, and Martin Thoma from the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA in Stuttgart have been awarded the 2021 Fraunhofer Prize for “Human- and Environment-Centered Technology” on behalf of their teams.
To date, chemicals have always been used in inactivated vaccine production. The pathogens are stored with toxic chemicals, particularly formaldehyde, until the viral genetic information is completely destroyed and it is incapable of replication. This process is known as inactivation.
However, it has a number of drawbacks. For a start, the chemicals also destroy part of the external structures that the immune system forms antibodies from. Also, industrial-scale vaccine production involves large quantities of toxic chemicals, which are hazardous to humans and the environment. Finally, depending on the virus, it can take weeks to months to actually ‘kill’ it.
Their high-tech approach has none of these disadvantages. “Instead of inactivating the virus with toxic chemicals, we fire electrons at it,” explained Dr Ulbert. “The viral particle [is] almost completely intact. There are no chemicals that we need to dispose of and the entire process takes just a few seconds.”
But there was a problem. The electrons can only penetrate liquids to less than half a millimetre, losing energy along the way. To reliably kill viruses in the liquid with the electrons, the liquid film has to be no thicker than around 0.1 millimetres—and it must be transported evenly, too. “This required complex equipment technology, which is why we brought Fraunhofer IPA on board,” said Rögner.
At Fraunhofer IPA, Martin Thoma developed two ways to overcome the problem. “The pouch module is suitable for conducting preliminary tests that provide useful information, while the tumbler module is beneficial for larger quantities,” said the physics graduate. On the basis of this setup, Dr Fertey investigated viruses such as influenza, Zika and herpes as well as numerous bacteria and parasites, which were treated with electrons subject to targeted acceleration via the pouch and tumbler module. “We were able to successfully and reliably inactivate all classes of pathogens,” said the delighted biologist.
In about five to seven years, the production modules—which are the size of a refrigerator—could be integrated into pharmaceutical production in order to produce vaccines in a quick, efficient and environmentally friendly process.
Source: Phys.Org
