They were fired from gas guns to test their candidacy for panspermia, are believed to have survived the crash landing of the Beresheet lunar rover on the moon, can live without water, withstand radiation and can be frozen. is also expected to survive and become one of the final forms of life on Earth when the Sun begins to dim in about 5 billion years.
So it’s no surprise that everyone’s favorite microscopic creature has yet another superpower in its chubby sleeve: a clever chemistry unique to tardigrades that can stabilize medicine without refrigeration. It has great potential to provide life-saving treatment to those who need it.
Researchers at the University of Wyoming focused on one of the tardigrade’s key survival skills: anhydrobiosis. The team believes that animals have the ability to enter a reversible asphyxia state when faced with extreme water loss from their cells, adding the same stable desiccation to biopharmaceuticals that would otherwise require a refrigerated environment. We believed we could provide storage.
Biologics – vaccines, antibodies, stem cells, blood, and other blood products – are derived from living organisms and require cold conditions to prevent heat from breaking down and destroying proteins. Dependent on the cold chain infrastructure is human blood clotting (clotting) factor VIII (FVIII). It has applications in the treatment of genetic disorders such as hemophilia A and disorders involving extreme physical trauma and bleeding.
Researchers have found that microwater bears can provide a desiccant shield similar to FVIII by utilizing specific proteins and sugars produced in anhydrobiota. Moreover, their study showed that he remained stable for 10 weeks while FVIII was treated.
“In undeveloped areas, access to refrigerators and freezers, and sufficient electrical power to run this infrastructure, may be scarce during natural disasters, during space flights, or on the battlefield,” says Molecular Biology. said Thomas Boothby, an assistant professor at UW. “Our study provides proof of principle that proteins from tardigrades can be used to stabilize factor VIII and possibly many other pharmaceuticals in a stable dry state at both room temperature and elevated temperature. Therefore, providing critical life-saving medicine for everyone, everywhere.”
using Hypsibius Dugiardini In species, the team fine-tuned processing based on cytoplasmically abundant heat-soluble (CAHS) proteins and the sugar trehalose. In particular, the CAHS D protein protects dehydrated enzymes and forms gel-like filaments to keep animal cell structures intact. When hydration returns, the filaments retract without causing cellular stress.
By exploiting the biophysical properties of CAHS D and trehalose, the team was able to stabilize FVIII, opening the door for developing this transport and storage technology across the spectrum of biologics.
“This study shows that dry storage is effective in protecting biologics and provides a convenient, logistically simple, and economically viable means of stabilizing life-saving medicines. We are doing it,” said Boothby. “This will be beneficial not only for global health initiatives in remote and underdeveloped regions of the world, but also for fostering a safe and productive space economy. We will rely on new technologies: food and other biomolecules.”
The study was published in a journal scientific report.
Source: University of Wyoming
