Why Silk May Be Added To Vaccines Someday

[TZ]

Silk is in neckties, scarves and some fancy underwear and pajamas. Before too long, it might just help keep people from getting sick with measles or polio.

Vaccines play an important role in health, but can be tricky to transport to the far corners of the world. Many vaccines and some other drugs require constant refrigeration — from the factories where they're made to the places where they're ultimately injected into people.

That's where silk comes in.

Researchers from Tufts University recently discovered that proteins in silk could help protect some vaccines and drugs from heat damage, eliminating the need for this so-called cold chain, according to a study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/07/09/156503977/why-silk-may-someday-be-added-to-vaccines.

This is one of the more interesting things I've read lately. The ability to not have to refrigerate vaccines is a VERY important breakthrough. And since I don't feel like having my thread hi jacked by anti-vax I'm posting it here.

[Warpy]

1. That's really interesting

The main vaccine that the world is desperate for that would be stable at warm to hot temperatures is the polio vaccine. While the oral vaccine is heat stable, it also contains live cultures that result in adult cases of polio transmitted by fecal/oral transmission from recently immunized young children in bush areas with nonexistent sanitation.

[frogmarch]

2. The link doesn't work for me, but

I Googled silk vaccine and found a Scientific American article about it. I actually found several online articles about it. According to one article, the silk is spider silk.

Earlier today I posted a video in the DU Science forum about the production of spider silk that is being used by the medical profession, in which a spider silk gene is implanted into a goat embryo. This results in the adult goat producing milk containing the spider silk protein. When the fats are removed from the milk and the proteins purified, the silk strands can be spun onto spools. It's used to mend torn ligaments, and in other medical procedures too.

Your post was the first I'd heard of silk being used in vaccines. Very cool! Thanks for the info.

[drm604]

3. Your link is broken by the period at the end.

This works: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/07/09/156503977/why-silk-may-someday-be-added-to-vaccines