Science Alert May 26, 2019
While other tactics have focused on reengineering the vaccines or modifying their vectors, new method invented by researchers in Canada is based on the simple addition of sugar. The viruses are mixed and then dried into a sugary film, created from a combination of two FDA-approved food preservatives, called pullulan and trehalose. Suspended in this solution, the vaccines can be transported without the need for constant cooling. To reactive them, local clinicians need only add water before administering them to patients, as fresh as if they came from a fridge. So far, the effectiveness has only been tested in mice. But using the Herpes Simplex Virus type 2 and the Influenza A virus as examples, using this technique, both vaccines could withstand 40 °C temperatures (104 °F) for at least two months…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLEÂ
Credit: JD Howell/McMaster University