Revolutionary Polio Vaccine Offers Safer, More Accessible Immunization for a Polio-Free Future: Study Finds
Researchers have taken a major step towards producing a more affordable and lower-risk polio vaccine using virus-like particles (VLPs). These particles mimic the outer protein shell of poliovirus, but are empty inside. This means there is no risk of infection, but the VLP still causes the immune system to respond.
In a paper published in Nature Communications, the findings show that VLPs produced in both yeast and insect cells can perform equally or better than the current inactivated polio vaccine (IPV), which creates an immune system response by using a killed version of the poliovirus.
Professor Stonehouse, the senior author of the research said: “Any vaccine is only as effective as the number of children that it reaches. The key is to make vaccines universally accessible, as all children have a right to be protected from diseases such as polio, no matter where they live. Ultimately, VLPs would significantly contribute to vaccine equity.
Currently, IPV is relatively expensive to produce because it requires high levels of bio-containment to minimise the risk of leaks of live poliovirus, which could result in outbreaks. VLPs are non-infectious and would not need to be handled under such stringent bio-safety conditions.
Oral polio vaccine (OPV), which contains live but weakened vaccine-virus, is also used in vaccination against polio.
Non-infectious VLPs are easier to produce than current IPVs and the research has shown they are more temperature stable, thanks to genetic alteration of the outer shell. As they are non-infectious, this means they will be less expensive to produce, helping to improve equitable access to vaccination.
Ref: Sherry, L., Bahar, M.W., Porta, C. et al. Recombinant expression systems for production of stabilised virus-like particles as next-generation polio vaccines. Nat Commun 16, 831 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-56118-z
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