The Division of Drug Delivery Technology (DDT) has chosen Nanosight's LM-20 nanoparticle analysis system for vaccine delivery and protein formulation/characterisation relating to immunogenicity.
The DDT division is part of the Leiden/Amsterdam Center for Drug Research (LACDR), a research institute located at the Gorlaeus laboratories in Leiden, the Netherlands.
Prof Wim Jiskoot, the leader of the team, said: 'The vaccine delivery group aims to develop innovative delivery systems, such as polymeric nanoparticles and liposomes, for the delivery of different types of vaccines through the conventional [injection] or needle-free administration routes [such as transcutaneous or intranasal delivery].
'It is very important to know the size of the delivery systems as the size can influence the uptake by the cells of the immune system, the diffusion through the skin, the release of vaccine components and thus the immune response,' he added.
The protein characterisation group seeks to understand the causes of the unwanted immunogenicity of therapeutic proteins and to develop transgenic mouse models capable of predicting the immunogenicity of human/humanised proteins in a preclinical setting.
Jiskoot continued: 'For the protein group, a good size characterization of protein aggregates is essential to better understand which size class is responsible for triggering the unwanted immunogenicity of therapeutic proteins, which is believed to be related to the presence of aggregates in the protein formulations.
'The group aims to stress and thoroughly characterise protein formulations to then test which ones are more immunogenic after their injection in the mouse models,' he said.
Prior to using Nanosight's LM-20 system, the group used a variety of established particle characterisation techniques such as dynamic light scattering (DLS), light obscuration particle counting (LOPC) and electron microscopy (EM).
However, each has deficiencies in terms of parameters such as sample preparation and speed of use.
The main user is Vasco Filipe, who has seen several benefits that make the LM-20 his system of preference.
He said: 'We are able to visualise the sample, which gives us confidence in our results.
'Individual particle tracking enables a much better peak resolution than DLS, making it better suited to study polydisperse samples.
'It gives an approximate particle concentration while letting us see bacterial contamination easily as "swimming" particles,' added Filipe.
