US government funds Cambridge Biostability's stable vaccine technology
The US government announced its support for a new British vaccine technology, which promises for the first time to provide an effective defence against botulism - the most deadly naturally occurring substance. The US National Institute of Allergy and infectious diseases (NIAID) part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, has awarded a $3.5m grant to Cambridge Biostability Ltd, developers of a new stable vaccine technology, to work alongside the DVC LLC in the creation of a new vaccine against botulism. The technology developed by Cambridge Biostability will for the first time enable the development of a stable vaccine for botulism. Rendering it no greater risk to public health than tetanus and effectively neutralising the danger of botulism as a potential weapon.
Botulinum toxin is a poison; it is not infectious but can be inhaled if released deliberately as a powder into the atmosphere. It affects the body within hours, resulting in death or a paralysis, which can last for months, during which time the casualty is unable to breathe without a respirator. Tetanus is also neurotoxin, which once deadly is now successfully controlled by vaccination.
Until now a single vaccine has not been possible as Bruce Roser, Chief Scientific Advisor for Cambridge Biostability explains: "The problem is that Botulism is caused by seven slightly different poisons produced by six different bugs. In the event of an attack a person would need to be given multiple vaccine injections to cover all the bugs and three shots are required of each vaccine. The vaccine is created by turning the poison into a toxoid - a weaker non-toxic version that still triggers an immune response in the body. Each type of toxoid needs to be kept separately, buffered with the right amount of acidity to keep it in solution; if this is not exact the toxoid is destroyed. With our stable liquid technology you can encapsulate each toxoid in its own microsphere. The microspheres can be mixed and kept at room temperature without harming the vaccine. This means that for the first time it is possible to create a single multivalent vaccine which can be stored safely without refrigeration."
The new technology is based on a natural phenomenon. Some plants and creatures can remain in a desiccated state for hundreds of years by reducing the water content of their bodily fluids. Water within the cells is replaced with a sugar solution that thickens when water is excluded to a point of solidifying as a glass and the organism dries out. When rehydrated they "return to life". This process is being applied for the first time to vaccines. Sugar hardens to form a non-crystalline glass. So the vaccine is first spray-dried using the sugar syrup to form microscopic glass spheres. The dry vaccine is then suspended in an approved inert liquid, which can be injected into muscle where bodily fluids reactivate the vaccine.
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