A new AI-powered program has generated code for COVID-19 vaccines that generate up to 128 times more antibody responses.
The research arm of Chinese tech giant Baidu has announced a revolutionary method for designing previously unattainable mRNA vaccination sequences.
The AI-driven software produced code for COVID-19 vaccinations that elicited up to 128 times higher antibody responses in mouse validation tests.
The LinearDesign method has also been shown to successfully extend the shelf life of vaccinations sixfold, even when exposed to body temperatures.
Most vaccinations require cold storage, which complicates distribution efforts, particularly in hotter regions of the world.
The capacity to increase vaccine shelf stability and tolerance to different temperatures could have a significant impact on global immunization efforts.
According to Dr. He Zhang, Staff Software Engineer at Baidu Research, the AI tool developed by the researchers could have uses beyond vaccinations and help design potent new cancer treatments.
Only a few weeks ago, tailored mRNA vaccines for pancreatic cancer patients showed promising results in a small study undertaken by New York researchers and Germany’s BioNTech, preventing the tumor from returning in half of those treated.
To potentially stimulate an immune response, the researchers used a pancreatic cancer mRNA vaccine tailored to each patient’s tumor.
Messenger RNA (mRNA) medicine refers to a novel class of medications and vaccines that employ mRNA, a little bit of genetic material, to train the body’s cells to manufacture a protein that activates an immune response against a specific disease, such as a virus. This technique differs from typical vaccines, which boost the immune system by using weakened or inactivated portions of a specific pathogen.
Oncology is a significant market for mRNA vaccine makers, as are allergies. BioNTech, which developed the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine alongside Pfizer, also owns the intellectual rights to an mRNA immunization platform designed to defend against allergens such as grass pollen and home dust mites.
While mRNA therapy appears promising, it is not without its own set of obstacles.
“mRNA vaccines have saved many lives,” Zhang says, “but there are still some issues with stability and thus effectiveness.”
The challenge of keeping mRNA intact: Messenger RNA is unstable because it is single-stranded, as opposed to double-stranded DNA.
Dr. Liang Huang, Professor at Oregon State University and co-author of the LinearDesign research, noted that single-stranded regions of our mRNA are more easily chopped down to pieces or degraded into segments – either by immune systems, water molecules, or even before being injected into your body.
When mRNA is degraded into little bits, it cannot transmit the entire message to the cells.
“The goal is to keep the mRNA intact in its full length,” Huang explained, adding that the messenger RNA must be as compact as possible.
“In other words, you want to design mRNA that folds and looks more like [double-stranded] DNA,” he explained to Euronews Next. That is exactly what the LinearDesign algorithm has accomplished.
