UCC’s ‘malaria patch’ en route to Silicon Valley

A UCC researcher is to travel to Silicon Valley in California next week in a bid to commercialise a new malaria vaccine patch that has been developed in Cork.

Dr Anne Moore is to meet with venture capitalists and leading technology companies in the US, having led a research team that has developed a microneedle-based patch that results in increased vaccine-induced protection against malaria, using lower doses of vaccine in pre-clinical testing.

The microneedle-based patch also overcomes one of the main problems with this type of vaccine. This relates to overcoming pre-existing immunity to the vaccine which researchers claim, could have significant consequences for the costs and logistics of vaccination.

The skin patch has an array of tiny silicon ‘micro-needles’ that painlessly create temporary pores in the very outermost barrier layer of the skin, permitting the vaccine to flow into the skin — which is rich in cells of the immune system. The experimental vaccine was based on a live adenovirus, which is similar to those that can cause a common cold, but is engineered to be safer and to deliver a protein from the malaria-causing parasite to the immune system.

Adenoviruses are one of the most potent vaccine platforms tested to date in humans, and they are being developed to prevent or treat diseases such as malaria, HIV, influenza and ebola, and to combat other infectious diseases.

Researchers found that by delivering the adenovirus with the patch, patients’ immune systems did not develop an anti-adenovirus immunity, as is the case when vaccines of this nature are delivered via an injection.

This immunity prevents its repeated use as a vaccine, as the immune system recognises the adenovirus and prevents it from delivering the malaria protein, so another vaccine type, or adenovirus strain, needs to be used in the booster immunisation.

“What’s exciting from this work is that administration of this vaccine with the microneedle patch did not induce this strong anti- adenovirus immunity, even though very potent immunity to the malaria antigen is generated,” Dr Moore explained.

The research team demonstrated that using the micro-needle patch in the primary immunisation permits repeated use of the same adenovirus vaccine and this immunisation method induces potent and highly-protective immune responses against malaria in pre-clinical studies.

The work was carried out by researchers in the School of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacology and the TyndallNational Institute, UCC in collaboration with colleagues at the Jenner Institute, University of Oxford and was published by Nature Publication Group in Scientific Reports and funded by Enterprise Ireland and Science Foundation Ireland.

Dr Moore’s visit to Silicon Valley is being hosted by the Irish Technology Leadership Group as part of a Science Foundation Ireland initiative for researchers to help them develop their entrepreneurial skills in the Get Started Venture Technology programme.