Marine Biology offers Vaccine and Drug Treatments

The CSIRO believes it has found the answer to the challenge of vaccine transportation in seashells.

Due to vaccines requiring protection from varying temperatures for long periods over multiple transportation routes and distances, eskies and refrigerated trucks are often the only methods available - a risky venture that can cost quite a bit.

Instead, the container of the vaccine itself has been redesigned to resemble a capsule, taking inspiration from the mineral makeup of shells. CSIRO lead researcher Dr Kang Liang describes the concept.

“Inspired by a sea urchin’s outer shell, which supports and protects its fragile body, we’ve come up with a porous shell that grows around important proteins such as enzymes to protect them on the inside.

“Our shell offers a low-cost solution to protecting proteins for making and enhancing drugs and other products where sensitivity has long been an issue.”

The shell is made of an extremely porous material called metal organic frameworks (MOFs) that has a flexible and customisable cage-like structure. The shell’s tiny cage holes are similar to a sea creature’s pores and are designed to capture, trap or release specific biomolecules,” Dr Liang says.

Marine animal shells are giving hope to pain treatment thanks to the valuable toxins contained within the venom of a Queensland cone snail. The University of Queensland’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience belives their research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science could lead to new drugs for pain and cancer treatments.

Professor Paul Alewood, says the team used biochemical and bioinformatics tools to develop a new method to analyse the structure of the venom toxins, allowing them to delve deeper than ever before.

"Cone snail venom is known to contain toxins proven to be valuable drug leads," he says. "This study gives the first-ever snapshot of the toxins that exist in the venom of a single cone snail. "Cone snail venoms are a complex cocktail of many chemicals and most of these toxins have been overlooked in the past."

There are 25 known frameworks discovered over the past 25 years, many of which have already led to a drug or drug lead for several diseases.

"We expect these newly discovered frameworks will also lead to new medications, which can be used to treat pain, cancer and a range of other diseases."