Developing targeting strategies for mucosal-administered inactivated vaccines applicable to livestock animals.
Why is this challenge important?
Livestock animals (poultry, swine, ruminants) are commonly receiving (live) vaccines that are administered via the mucosal route (drinking water or feed for oral route or spray into respiratory system).
The main advantage of mucosal-applied vaccines is that they can be mass-applied and are convenient for the customer and the animal (no stress due to injection or impact on performance). In general, live vaccines still bear safety risks (too ‘hot’, potential risk of return to virulence). For that reason, inactivated vaccines that are applicable for mucosal administration are of high interest to be developed for livestock animals.
However, within the mucosal tract there are only a limited number of cellular entry portals available where antigenic material can be actively taken up for processing. This is exerted by the so-called Microfold (M-) cells that are specialized epithelial cells covering the underlying lymphoid tissue and have the capacity to a-specifically sample antigen from the luminal area for processing and subsequently presentation towards the underlying immune cells. The local mucosal conditions are however harsh that urge the development of vaccine formulations ensuring antigen stability under variable pH and the presence of proteolytic enzymes. As an additional layer of complexity, the mucosal immune system is skewed towards a tolerogenic state that requires sufficient immunogenicity of a vaccine formulation for the induction of a response.
Together, this emphasizes that targeted delivery to these gatekeeper cells by improved vaccine formulations and/or delivery technologies are key in order to develop an efficacious mucosal inactivated vaccine.
For this challenge, we are looking towards novel approaches that may enable targeted delivery of vaccine antigens towards mucosal M-cells.
Novel and innovative ideas that could support the feasibility research towards efficacious inactivated vaccines for oral administration.
MSD Animal Health in the Netherlands has offices in Boxmeer and De Bilt. The Boxmeer location is the largest location within the pharmaceutical industry worldwide when it comes to the development and production of veterinary vaccines. Today about 1400 people work at MSD Animal Health in the Netherlands. One in eight people work in research and development and about half work in production and quality control. The other employees work within support departments and services. The sales organization for the Netherlands is also located in Boxmeer. A large number of important vaccine development functions (research, development, production, quality control, logistics, marketing and sales) can be found in one location. Thanks to the enormous knowledge, skills and experience of its employees, MSD Animal Health in Boxmeer is a Center of Excellence. The company regularly demonstrates how innovative it is. For example, in 2015, MSD Animal Health became the first company to market a combination vaccine against Circo and Mycoplasma infections in pigs. This is just one example of the innovative strength of the company and the excellent way of multidisciplinary collaboration between teams in the Netherlands and other branches of the international MSD Animal Health organization.