- The Instituto de Salud Carlos III is funding with more than EUR 126,000 the work of the research group led by Javier Montenegro, at the Centre for Research in Biological Chemistry and Molecular Materials at USC
The Centre for Research in Biological Chemistry and Molecular Materials (CiQUS), from the USC (University of Santiago de Compostela), will receive EUR 126,000 from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III within the framework of its work on the preparation and use of peptide vectors for the cell delivery of messenger RNA (mRNA). This technology can be applied to develop COVID-19 vaccines Over a period of six months, the research group led by Javier Montenegro will develop a platform for detecting possible alternatives that can be used as gene transport for the vaccine.
"Receiving this funding from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III gives us a good deal of confidence", explained Javier Montenegro on Tuesday. "We have optimised vectors in vitro for more than five years and we have recently conducted animal testing with promising results", he says.
mRNA-based vaccines are at the core of some of the clinical trials carried out in the race to find a COVID-19 vaccine. However, one of the biggest challenges in this field is the extreme sensitivity and difficult transport of genetic material (RNA) that provokes the immune response, a fact that inhibits its potential. To ease this constraint, the research group led by Javier Montenegro is working on the development of a synthetic platform for the rapid detection of peptide-based vehicles for RNA with the potential to work as vehicles for gene delivery.
The implementation of this methodology has enabled the identification of a candidate with a highly improved efficiency of delivery as compared to typical commercial reagents. Recently, it has also been proved that this candidate is very active for in vivo administration of mRNA in mice, which suggests that it can be an excellent non-viral vector for the formulation of mRNA vaccines with greater potential.
Rapid response
"Non-viral vectors will have a great impact on nucleic acid-based therapies because they are easily scalable and have certain advantages with respect to load size and adverse reactions", explains Javier Montenegro. "mRNA vaccines have a great potential due to their flexibility, safety and rapid development, making them ideal for situations which require a quick response, such as emerging infectious diseases", he continues. The improvement of mRNA delivery through an adequate carrier should increase vaccine efficiency and should reduce the required dose, thereby increasing the number of people who can have access to these vaccines.
