Vaccination is one of the most effective methods to strengthen the immune system (as if the opponents tried to prove the opposite). However, the procedure of vaccination with the use of injections did not change over a century and still remains painful and unpleasant. Therefore, the creation of vaccines in, say, a tablet form would be a real breakthrough, as it would facilitate not only the procedure itself, but also transportation and storage of drugs. The vaccine in tablets is a complex process with many limitations, which managed to overcome a group of scientists from the UK.
As you know, during the vaccination injected into the body a weakened immune agents that provoke an immune response and elicit the production of antibodies. And as the pills dissolve in your stomach, then just put the “bad guys” in them will not work – they just get recycled under the action of gastric juice. As writes the edition of The Journal of Clinical Investigation, a team of specialists from Cardiff University under the guidance of Andrew Sevilla managed to create a new technology of production of synthetic vaccines that can be used for the production of “vaccine”tablets.
Scientists used for production of synthetic peptides, the structure of which is similar to viral, but not built from natural L-amino acids (levorotatory), and their mirror images — D-amino acids (dextrorotatory isomer). These amino acids cause absolutely identical to the immune response and are resistant to the action of gastric and intestinal enzymes. D-amino acids only a small amount excreted through the kidneys. Most of the drug remains unchanged. However, in the next couple of years to wait for vaccines in tablets just not worth it. Scientists are only at the beginning of his career and at the moment, checked the work of medicines of a new type only in a series of laboratory experiments with cell cultures. Now we need to test vaccines on animals, and only then (if positive) can start a full-fledged clinical trials on humans.
Scientists are developing a synthetic vaccine in tablets
Vladimir Kuznetsov