New biotechnological tools significantly increase vaccine development
By means of so-called reverse vaccination, the time it takes to develop a vaccine can be reduced from ten years to just a few years.
Reverse vaccination is a relatively new technology in which potential vaccine antigens can be found significantly faster than traditional. We have seen a race over the last 15-20 years to develop a whole new vaccine against a given virus or bacterium. New biotechnological tools can reduce this time to just a few years.
This was one of the topics at the Sealice2018 conference in Punta Arenas, Chile recently.
According to the Institute of Marine Research it was necessary to isolate and cultivate pathogenic microorganisms in the laboratory. Then individual proteins had to be purified and tested to determine if they were suitable for vaccine antigens, which was a time-consuming process.
Identify each protein
Christian Gallardo-Escarate and a research group at the Research Center for Aquaculture INCAR, at the University of Concepcion, sees that at least Caligus rogercresseyi can be controlled.
Today, however, the availability of reasonable genome sequencing has enabled computer programs to be used to identify each protein made by an organism and to predict to some extent whether the protein has the potential to be an effective vaccine antigen.
During the selection process of antigen, data analyzes can be used to detect whether the protein is involved in survival for microorganisms or infection and whether similar proteins have been used in other vaccines.
RNA sequences
20 individuals of the louse Caligus rogercresseyi were gene sequenced and based on this, they looked for RNA sequences that were expressed when the lice had infected a salmon. Some of these "candidates" were then used to make a recombinant vaccine that was then injected into salmon.
Kyst.no wrote earlier this week about the Chilean drug company Pharmacological and Aquacultura Veterinaria (FAV SA) who is also working on this issue. They showed data from a vaccine that had given a 50 percent reduction in lice amount of salmon vaccinated with a test vaccine in the lab.
Reduced lice volume by 97%
Christian Gallardo-Escarate is no worse than his last day at Sealice2018 could prove to be a lab trial where he had reduced lice volume by 97%, 25 days after infection of lice.
- Transcriptional analysis at the louse showed that the key gene associated with development was heavily downregulated as a response to the vaccine, he said.
Gallardo-Escarate sees that if you get a vaccine for commercial conditions you will be able to get a whole new way of thinking about lice protection:
- The fish are usually vaccinated intraperitoneally in fresh water. 400 days after it can go to sea, and the vaccine will last for 3-4 months. Then we see that we can treat the fish with hydrogen peroxide because the loop left is much more sensitive to oxidative stress than normal, he pointed out.
