Olive oil is one of the most useful items in people’s pantries. Along with being a common ingredient for many recipes, it also offers health benefits, including improving heart health and reducing inflammation. Now, olive oil’s secret to anti-inflammation may be found in an unexpected place: your next COVID-19 vaccine.
A new study, published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, used the anti-inflammatory properties of olive oil to inspire a new type of mRNA vaccine. These vaccines are not only less painful but also more effective and longer-lasting.
How did scientists achieve this breakthrough? Through a slight adjustment to the vaccines’ lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), which deliver mRNA to the body.
“By essentially changing the recipe for these lipids, we were able to make them work better with fewer side effects. It’s a win-win,” said Michael J. Mitchell, associate professor in Bioengineering and the paper’s senior author, in a press release.
This newly created LNP — known as C-a16 — has the potential to revolutionize vaccine delivery, CRISPR gene editing, and even cancer treatments.
Read More: Seed Oils or Animal Fats: What Is Healthiest to Cook With?
Creating a Less Painful Vaccine
To find this scientific breakthrough in the present, the research team had to start in the past.
Normally, ionizable lipids in LNPs are made using a sandwich-like method where chemical reactions bring two separate components together to create a new molecule. This method has been incredibly successful and has not led many scientists to investigate new or different methods for this process.
However, this group of scientists decided to investigate whether any other processes were possible and, potentially, more effective. They found their answer in a century-old method known as the Mannich reaction, which combines three components rather than two. The addition of an extra component drastically increased the number of molecular outcomes.
By using the Mannich reaction, the team created a library of hundreds of new lipids, one of them being C-a16. This lipid was created by adding a group of compounds commonly found in olive oil. Upon testing, they were surprised to find that the addition of the olive oil compounds resulted in a substantial decrease in inflammation. More importantly, the new LNP also outperformed the current on-market mRNA vaccines and showed significant improvements in performance.
“It’s kind of like the secret sauce,” said Ninqiang Gong, co-first author of the paper, in the press release. “The [compounds] not only reduce the side effects associated with LNPs, but improve their efficiency.”
After making the new LNP, scientists used it in a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine. Along with being less painful, the vaccine created an immune response that was five times stronger than those currently available.
How C-a16 Could Revolutionize Medicine
After seeing the anti-inflammatory and overall performance effects of C-a16, researchers were curious about whether their new LNP could be incorporated into other areas of medicine. The positive results were overwhelming.
To begin, C-a16 shows promise for helping gene editing tools like CRISPR. In a mouse trial, C-a16 assisted in the editing of a faulty gene that causes a rare genetic liver disease, more than doubling the effectiveness of current gene editing delivery models.
In another animal trial, the team also tested the effectiveness of the new LNPs in delivering cancer treatment. Here, melanoma cancer treatments delivered using C-a16 were three times more effective at shrinking tumors and boosted the destructive power of cancer-fighting T cells.
The research team behind the discovery hopes to find more secrets locked away in the chemical methods and processes of the past.
“We tried applying one reaction discovered a century ago, and found it could drastically improve cutting-edge medical treatments. It’s exciting to imagine what else remains to be rediscovered,” said Mitchell in the press release.
This article is not offering medical advice and should be used for informational purposes only.
Read More: CRISPR Fulfills Its Promise with First-Ever Personalized Gene-Editing Therapy
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As the marketing coordinator at Discover Magazine, Stephanie Edwards interacts with readers across Discover’s social media channels and writes digital content. Offline, she is a contract lecturer in English & Cultural Studies at Lakehead University, teaching courses on everything from professional communication to Taylor Swift, and received her graduate degrees in the same department from McMaster University. You can find more of her science writing in Lab Manager and her short fiction in anthologies and literary magazine across the horror genre.
