Ultrasonic synthetic technique to manufacture a pHEMA nanopolymeric-based vaccine against the H6N2 avian influenza virus: a preliminary investigation

Gérrard Eddy Jai Poinern¹, Xuan Thi Le¹, Songhua Shan², Trevor Ellis³, Stan Fenwick³, John Edwards³, Derek Fawcett^1
1Murdoch Applied Nanotechnology Research Group, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA, Australia; ²Australian Animal Health Laboratories, CSIRO, VIC, Australia; ³Veterinary School, School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA, Australia

Abstract: This preliminary study investigated the use of poly (2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (pHEMA) nanoparticles for the delivery of the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) vaccine pCAG-HAk, which expresses the full length hemagglutinin (HA) gene of the avian influenza A/Eurasian coot/Western Australian/2727/1979 (H6N2) virus with a Kozak sequence which is in the form of a pCAGGS vector. The loaded and unloaded nanoparticles were characterized using field-emission scanning electron microscopy. Further characterizations of the nanoparticles were made using atomic force microscopy and dynamic light scattering, which was used to investigate particle size distributions. This preliminary study suggests that using 100 µg of pHEMA nanoparticles as a nanocarrier/adjuvant produced a reduction in virus shedding and improved the immune response to the DNA vaccine pCAG-HAk.

Keywords: nanoparticles, ultrasound, deoxyribonucleic acid, plasmid, bird flu, pandemic