Seminario INGEBI

Lunes 2 de Diciembre 13:20hs

Dr. Juliana Cassataro

Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas

(IIB-Universidad de San Martín – UNSAM, CONICET)

Development of new adjuvants for oral vaccines

Oral delivery is the natural choice not only for drugs, but also for vaccines, by virtue of its ease of administration and cost. In addition, unlike systemic immunization, an oral vaccine can produce a local immune response, which is desirable with most infectious agents. However, it is difficult to make an effective and safe oral vaccine because of the numerous hurdles presented by the gastrointestinal tract. Antigens undergo proteolytic degradation in the stomach and intestine. Another barrier that needs to be bypassed is the immune tolerance resulting from antigen feeding. Consequently, to reliably immunize with peptide or protein vaccines, antigens must be protected, uptake enhanced, and the immune tolerance properly controlled. Adjuvants are molecules, compounds or macromolecular complexes that increase the specific immune responses to an antigen. Our project is focused on studying whether a bacterial protein can protect antigens delivered in oral vaccines from degradation and act as a trigger to create mucosal immune responses that would better protect the body against mucosal pathogens. We propose to use this protein to stimulate the delivery of antigens in mucosal tissues. We are also working to increase the half life of the antigens, thus increasing the vaccines’ effectiveness. We believe that if we finally learn how to effectively deliver oral vaccines, this will transform radically not only the vaccine industry but global health in general.