(image: Korea Bizwire/Kobiz Media)
DAEJEON, March 26 (Korea Bizwire) – A South Korean research team has developed an adjuvant that can help vaccines work better.
The Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology said Thursday that researchers had developed an adjuvant that acts as a fake RNA virus to make it easier for the vaccine to penetrate the cell and invigorate the immune system.
A vaccine antigen refers to a piece of the crushed virus or a dead virus that is deprived of RNA virus.
When injecting a live virus, there is a risk in which the RNA virus actually penetrates into the cell, allowing the virus to proliferate therein.
However, when injecting an antigen that is deprived of RNA virus, the immune system does not function properly, thereby reducing the effect of the vaccine.
The newly-developed fake RNA virus compound enables the receptor of the cell to misunderstand it as a real one and activate the body’s immune system to secrete immune materials such as interferon and cytokine.
Real RNA virus is a high molecule compound that is difficult to produce. The cost of producing RNA virus is very high.
The research team succeeded in developing and mass-producing the fake RNA virus at a low cost. When tested in mice, its superior effect in improving influenza and foot-and-mouth disease vaccines was confirmed.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
