Korean vaccine development company NA Vaccine Institute has announced the results of a study on its next-generation vaccine platform. It induced T-cell responses and improved immune durability by incorporating its own immune enhancer nexavant. Based on the research results, the company will develop an inhalable universal flu vaccine.

On the 29th, NA Vaccine Institute announced to Nature Communications the mechanism of action and effectiveness of its universal flu vaccine technology utilizing Nexavant, an immune booster developed in-house. The research was supported by the Korea Health Industry Development Institute and Korea Drug Development Fund.

Nature's sister publication, Nature Communications, is an open access scientific journal published by the Nature portfolio since 2010. It promotes the dissemination and utilization of research results and is recognized as an authoritative journal in the scientific field.

With this research, NA Vaccine Institute has presented a next-generation platform that overcomes the limitations of existing vaccines. By incorporating Nexavant, a novel immune-boosting agent, it induces T-cell responses through the activity of dendritic cells, which are innate immune cells. The vaccine is less susceptible to mutations and has improved immune persistence.

Conventional antibody-based flu vaccines are unable to respond to mutating viruses and need to be reformulated every year to predict the prevalence of the virus. If the prediction is wrong or an unexpected mutation occurs, the efficacy drops rapidly.

The team simply mixed Nexavant into the existing vaccine and administered it by inhalation into the lungs. The results showed that the combination of Nexavent induced the production of antigen-specific antibodies, IgG and IgA, in serum and mucous membranes.

This group formed lung-resident memory T cells that were cross-reactive to various influenza strains and avian influenza viruses. The technology is considered to have great potential for pandemic response as well as other respiratory diseases such as tuberculosis and COVID-19.

Based on the results of the study, NAVI is developing an inhalable universal influenza vaccine. Nexavant is simply mixed with commercially available vaccine antigens and inhaled for two doses. Unlike existing vaccines, the inhalable vaccine is not injected, but induces an immune response in the lungs.

“This research achievement is significant from an academic, industrial, and health security perspective,” said Dr. Dongho Kim, CEO of NA Vaccine Institute. ”A universal flu vaccine is an attractive technology that has the potential to be a game changer in the $10 trillion flu vaccine market, and it is important to collaborate with large vaccine pharmaceutical companies.”