Various polysaccharides such as chitosan and β-glucan possess immunological properties that are advantageous for vaccine adjuvants. Therefore, in the presented study, chitosan and carboxymethyl-β-glucan were combined as nanoparticles, coupled to the model antigen ovalbumin as vaccine adjuvant and investigated in vivo in a mouse model.
The global corona pandemic requires effective vaccines to achieve herd immunity. In the study presented here, an inhalable chitosan-based nanovaccine containing the viral spike protein (S) was developed to specifically induce immunity at the mucosal sites of the respiratory tract.
Chitosan shows great potential as part of drug release systems of orally administered drug formulations. Another interesting use is as an antigen platform for vaccines. We present an article in which pneumococcal membrane protein-loaded chitosan capsules were prepared and evaluated for their efficacy for a nasally administered vaccine.
The new corona virus SARS-CoV-2 has spread globally, originating from China since the beginning of the year. The pathogen causes the lung disease Covid-19 and has been classified as a pandemic since March 11, 2020. Researchers around the world are working on the development of effective vaccinations and drugs. A current study examined the antiviral effectiveness of HTCC (N- (2-hydroxypropyl) -3-trimethylammonium chitosan chloride) in vitro and ex vivo against the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and MERS-CoV.
At the end of the year we want to give you an overview about chitosan-related publications in 2016 and in the second part we focus on a quite different application of chitosan – how human and veterinary vaccines could benefit from chitosan as adjuvant.
In March and April 262 publications were released about Chitosan, which mainly focused on animal and human studies, nanoparticles and pharmaceutical preparations. The most successful nations in the field of chitosan research have been: China (83 articles), India (31) and USA (22).
