Design a vaccine with artificial proteins

vaccine is one of the most effective interventions to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. They make the immune system produce antibodies to protect us from infection. However, we still lack an effective vaccine against many important pathogens, such as influenza or dengue fever. "When vaccines don't work very well, we tend to think that this is because the antibodies produced are not protective," said Bruno Correa, a professor at the Protein Design and Immunological Engineering Laboratory (LPDI) at the EPFL School of Engineering. "It's usually because our immune system makes the wrong type of antibodies." Scientists at Correia's lab have now developed a strategy to design artificial proteins that accurately guide the body's immune system in producing antibodies. The study has been published in the journal Science.To build proteins like Lego toysEPFL team created artificial proteins designed using computational methods. "They don't exist in nature, " said Dr. Car Yang, a ph.D. student and co-lead author of the study. " " we developed a protein design algorithm called topological builder. It allows you to build proteins almost as much as you would a LEGO brick. It's absolutely fascinating to assemble artificial proteins with new features. Fabian Sesterhenn, a doctoral student and first author, said.Diseases without vaccinesCorreia's team focused on the design of proteins that produce respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccines. Respiratory syncytial viruses can cause serious lung infections and are a main cause of hospitalization in infants and the elderly, "despite decades of research, so far there is no vaccine or treatment for respiratory syncytial viruses," Correia said.Newborn artificial proteins are created in the lab and then tested in animal models, prompting the immune system to produce specific antibodies to RSV weaknesses. "Our findings are encouraging because they suggest that one day we will be able to design more effective vaccines for specific viruses by prompting the immune system to produce specific antibodies," Correia said. "We still have a lot of work to do to make the vaccine we develop more effective. The study is a first step in that direction. Thecreating new proteins has gone far beyond immunology - they can also be used in various fields of biotechnology to expand the structure and functionality of natural proteins. Sesterhenn concludes, "We can now use protein design tools to create proteins for other biomedical applications, such as protein-based drugs or functional biomass. ”（cyy123.com）