You drink the vaccine with your nose?Development of an effective delivery system for treating lung diseases

[Anchor]
In the future, it is expected that it will be possible to develop an mRNA vaccine that is sucked into the respiratory tract instead of a painful muscle injection.

Researchers in Korea have developed a new nano-carrier that can overcome the limitations of delivery vehicles for mRNA vaccines and increase the effectiveness of treating lung diseases even with inhalation methods.

This is reporter Park Na-yeon.

[Reporter]
The mRNA vaccine, also known as the "COVID-19 vaccine," plays a role in preventing COVID-19 virus infection.

The mRNA vaccine is a technology suitable for responding to new infectious diseases because it is faster to develop, cheaper, and more safe than existing pathogen vaccines.

The immune response occurs only when mRNA enters the cell, but the current carrier has a problem of poor delivery efficiency in the lung microenvironment when it is switched to an inhaled state.

However, KAIST researchers have developed a new method of mRNA nano-carrier that can be inhaled by the respiratory tract to solve this problem.

[Jang Min-cheol / Ph.D. program in bio and brain engineering at KAIST (first author): Existing vaccine treatments are designed in consideration of the blood environment, so we can say that our particles suitable for the lung microenvironment are more effective in inhalation treatment.]

The newly developed nano-carrier maintains the particle structure even if it is changed to an inhalable method.

It can be absorbed directly, allowing rapid absorption into lung cells and increasing delivery efficiency.

The nanograft developed by the researchers can be easily inhaled through the nose using a device similar to a nebulizer commonly found in otolaryngology.

As a result of animal testing, it has been confirmed that the production rate of antigens that cause immune responses can be increased by 26 times compared to conventional vaccine methods.

In addition, delivery efficiency was high in lung and bronchial epithelial cells, and biosafety was high because it was not toxic.

The researchers revealed follow-up research plans, such as expanding the scope of their application to the treatment of genetic lung diseases using the newly developed nanodeliver.

[Jiho Park / Professor of Bio and Brain Engineering at KAIST: We will continue to use our particles for gene respiration treatment for various lung diseases that are difficult to treat and try to expand the scope of treatment as much as possible]

This study, which overcomes the limitations of mRNA delivery methods, is expected to enable the development of new vaccines to prepare for new respiratory infections.

The study was published in the international journal 'ACS Nano' in the field of nanotechnology.

I'm Park Nayeon of YTN Science.

Video recording: Kim Young-hwan