Researchers of Indian Institute of Science Innovate A Vaccine Candidate

IISc (Indian Institute of Science Innovate) developed a new method to deliver vaccine candidates for TB that can trigger immune & protection against TB.

A new potential vaccine against tuberculosis has been created by scientists at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru (TB). 

They employed sphere-shaped vesicles generated by bacteria that were coated with gold nanoparticles, allowing them to be transported to immune cells.

Also Read:10 Top IT Professionals Who Are IIT Alumni

They are confident that the new vaccination will elicit an immunological response and provide disease protection. India has so far been combating TB with the Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine. 

When administered into our bloodstream, it contains a weakened version of the pathogenic bacterium and starts the manufacture of antibodies that can assist battle the illness.

A team of scientists from the Center for BioSystems Science and Engineering under the direction of Assistant Professor Rachit Agarwal created the novel vaccination candidate (BSSE). 

The pathogenic bacterium is only partially present in the subunit vaccine candidate in order to elicit an immunological response.

Also Read: Top 10 Toughest Exams In India You Should Know About

Outer Membrane Vesicles (OMVs), spherical membrane-bound particles generated by some bacteria, were employed by the researchers because they include a variety of proteins and lipids that may trigger an immune response against the pathogen.

According to the researchers, OMVs include a range of antigens and can prompt a greater immune response than subunit vaccines, which typically only contain a few antigens—bacterial proteins that can activate an immunological response in the host.

OMVs made from Mycobacterium are inherently unstable, however researchers have discovered that OMVs coated on gold nanoparticles are uniform in size and stable, and that human immune cells have a better absorption of OMV-AuNPs than OMVs or gold nanoparticles alone.

Also Read: 10 Youngest Self-made Billionaires In India; Their Net Worth Will Surprise You

In order to create OMV-AuNPs through a 100 nm filter, researchers pushed the OMVs and the gold nanoparticles together. 

They next administered OMVs generated from Mycobacterium smegmatis, a similar bacterial species that doesn’t harm humans, to immune cells that were cultivated in the lab.

In order to advance the findings for therapeutic applications, the team now intends to create gold-coated OMVs directly produced from Mycobacterium tuberculosis then test them on animal studies.