Researchers Discover a Coating Material That Keeps Vaccines Outside the Refrigerator for at Least 3 Months, Making Vaccine Transportation Easier.
A research team from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) has developed a new method to protect vaccines from high temperatures. The research results demonstrate that this method can preserve vaccines at a temperature of 37 degrees Celsius for three consecutive months.
Electron microscope images of vaccine particles without MOF coating (left) and with MOF coating (right) at 37 degrees Celsius. (Image: Ruhani Singh)
“Vaccination is one of the most effective medical interventions, saving millions of lives each year. However, transporting vaccines, especially to developing countries, is very challenging due to the lack of necessary cold chain storage to keep vaccines safe,” explained Daniel Layton, a researcher involved in the project.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that over 50% of vaccines are wasted each year. One of the main reasons for this waste is the difficulty in maintaining vaccines at stable cold temperatures. Most vaccines need to be stored at temperatures between 2 – 8 degrees Celsius to prevent degradation. Some vaccines, particularly new mRNA vaccines, even require storage at colder temperatures, below 0 degrees Celsius.
The method developed by CSIRO researchers utilizes a hollow crystalline material that can dissolve, known as metal-organic framework (MOF). This material coats the vaccine molecules, protecting them from degradation due to high temperatures until the vaccine is needed. At that point, a simple solution can be added to dissolve the MOF coating, allowing the vaccine to be used as normal.
Cara Doherty, a member of the research team, explained that MOF is a hollow crystalline material that can grow around vaccines to form a protective scaffold against temperature fluctuations. MOF functions similarly to scaffolding around a house. When the scaffolding is removed, the house remains intact, and the same is true when the MOF is dissolved from the vaccine.
To test the new method, the research team used two vaccines containing common live viruses. These two vaccines (one for poultry diseases and one for influenza) typically degrade within a few days if not stored in a refrigerator. Live virus vaccines are highly effective, but their complex components make them susceptible to high temperatures, Layton noted.
The successful experiment showed that the MOF coating protected both types of vaccines for 12 weeks at room temperature and at temperatures up to 37 degrees Celsius. General images revealed that the vaccines remained usable after three months without refrigeration. The research team emphasized that there is still much work to be done before commercializing the MOF coating and implementing it in practice. The coating needs to be optimized and tested with various other vaccine types, such as mRNA.
However, the lead researcher, Ruhani Singh, is confident that this new method will help increase vaccine accessibility worldwide. According to him, this is a cost-effective technique that is easy to scale up and can be directly integrated into current vaccine production processes. He and his colleagues published their research findings in the journal Acta Biomaterialia on February 5.
