Vaccines are at the top of discussions nowadays, and for a pretty good reason: our current health landscape makes it inevitable for us to encounter them at some point. With the COVID-19 pandemic still underway, it’s a better time than any to talk about these treatments and discuss ways how to improve them.
Luckily for us, researchers over at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have been on the case for years now; a series of research launched by a team of scientists have been on the hunt for a more accessible way to administer drugs, specifically through oral delivery. Now, they seem to be on the cusp of something truly timely: a way to deliver mRNA vaccines orally. Their novel concept, revealed by the institution via a press release, has been published in the journal Matter.
The novel development involves the use of a unique type of capsule that they themselves developed—the paper on which having been published in the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences years prior. Here and back then, the capsule contains a series of tiny needles inside, each one capable of administering medicinal doses directly into the stomach lining.
A follow-up research stint co-opted insulin into the capsule—now called the self-orienting millimeter-scale applicator (SOMA)—giving type 2 diabetes patients a way to administer their own insulin doses without having to inject needles into themselves every single time. This particular work, on the other hand, was published in the journal Science.
Now, they managed to introduce a new type of treatment into the fold: mRNA vaccines, which are at the peak of discussion given their prevalence in the time of COVID-19. This time around, they adjusted their capsule technology to allow it to deliver some 150 µg (micrograms) of RNA into the stomach linings of pig models.
Co-senior author and Karl van Tassel Career Development Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT Giovanni Traverso: “Nucleic acids, in particular RNA, can be extremely sensitive to degradation particularly in the digestive tract. Overcoming this challenge opens up multiple approaches to therapy, including potential vaccination through the oral route.”
To protect the mRNA nucleic acids on their way to the stomach lining, Traverso and the team used protective particles made from polymers called poly(beta-amino esters) (PBAEs). These PBAEs carried the nucleic acids within them, and together with the existing capsule technology, stopped the RNA from degrading in the presence of digestive juices prior to drug delivery within the stomach.
The team managed to deliver some 50 µg of mRNA per capsule, and administered three (3) capsules to pig stomach models; this meant that they delivered some 150 µg of mRNA total—well above the amount currently administered by mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines, which range between 30 and 100 µg.
Currently, the team is now looking towards developing their novel mRNA capsule further to create a systemic immune response, allowing for “targeted treatments for gastrointestinal diseases,” which according to the team would be difficult to do through traditional injections.
“When you have systemic delivery through intravenous injection or subcutaneous injection, it’s not very easy to target the stomach,” said lead author Dr. Alex Abramson. “We see this as a potential way to treat different diseases that are present in the gastrointestinal tract.”
References
- Abramson, A., Caffarel-Salvador, E., Khang, M., Dellal, D., Silverstein, D., Gao, Y., Frederiksen, M. R., Vegge, A., Hubálek, F., Water, J. J., Friderichsen, A. V., Fels, J., Kirk, R. K., Cleveland, C., Collins, J., Tamang, S., Hayward, A., Landh, T., Buckley, S. T., … Traverso, G. (2019). An ingestible self-orienting system for oral delivery of macromolecules. Science. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aau2277
- Abramson, A., Kirtane, A. R., Shi, Y., Zhong, G., Collins, J. E., Tamang, S., Ishida, K., Hayward, A., Wainer, J., Rajesh, N. U., Lu, X., Gao, Y., Karandikar, P., Tang, C., Lopes, A., Wahane, A., Reker, D., Frederiksen, M. R., Jensen, B., … Traverso, G. (2022). Oral mRNA delivery using capsule-mediated gastrointestinal tissue injections. Matter, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matt.2021.12.022
- Haridy, R. (2022, February 1). Innovative capsule allows mRNA vaccines to be delivered orally. New Atlas. https://newatlas.com/medical/capsule-oral-mrna-vaccine-mit/
- Irving, M. (2019, February 8). MIT’s new oral capsule injects insulin through microneedles. New Atlas. https://newatlas.com/mit-insulin-oral-capsule/58390/
- Trafton, A. & MIT News Office. (2014, October 1). New drug-delivery capsule may replace injections. MIT News; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. https://news.mit.edu/2014/microneedles-drug-delivery-capsule-1001
- Trafton, A. & MIT News Office. (2019, February 7). New pill can deliver insulin. MIT News; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. https://news.mit.edu/2019/pill-deliver-insulin-orally-0207
- Trafton, A. & MIT News Office. (2022, January 31). Making RNA vaccines easier to swallow. MIT News; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. https://news.mit.edu/2022/oral-rna-vaccines-0131
- Traverso, G., Schoellhammer, C. M., Schroeder, A., Maa, R., Lauwers, G. Y., Polat, B. E., Anderson, D. G., Blankschtein, D., & Langer, R. (2015). Microneedles for drug delivery via the gastrointestinal tract. Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, 104(2), 362–367. https://doi.org/10.1002/jps.24182
- Wood, A. (2014, October 2). MIT pioneers drug delivery system with the potential to replace injections. New Atlas. https://newatlas.com/drug-delivery-system-capsule-microneedles-mit/34083/
