Antiviral agent against herpes successful in Innovation Transfer competition
First it tingles on the skin, then painful blisters form: Once infected with herpes viruses, the pathogen remains in the body for life and can lead to infections again and again. Drugs such as zinc ointments relieve the symptoms, but do not permanently eliminate the virus. Professor Rainer Adelung from the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (CAU) has been researching special zinc oxide particles and their possible applications for more than ten years. In a cooperation with Phi-Stone-AG, a CAU spin-off, he developed an antiviral agent from the particles that completely immobilizes herpes viruses. For this, Prof. Dr. Werner Petersen Foundation has now awarded the materials scientist and active ingredient manufacturer from Mielkendorf second place in the competition for the Innovation Transfer Prize. The foundation thus honors future-oriented products that science and industry have developed together in Schleswig-Holstein.
Viruses under the radar
At less than 200 nanometers, herpes viruses are too small to be quickly detected by the immune system’s “scavenger cells” – they disappear under the radar, so to speak. Normally, the immune system cannot fight them until they have spread throughout the body and have already formed blisters.
“In our approach, we give the body’s defenses ‘glasses’, so to speak, so that they recognize and switch off the herpes viruses at an early stage,” says Rainer Adelung, Professor of Functional Nanomaterials, summarizing the role of their “tetrapodal zinc oxide”. At first glance, the white, soft material looks like cotton. Its special structure only becomes visible under a high-resolution electron microscope: a densely branched network of four-armed particles, so-called tetrapods. Their shape gives the material unusual properties. They can bind herpes viruses to themselves and thus make them “visible” to the immune system.
Kiel tetrapods imitate healthy cells
To do this, the researchers released individual oxygen molecules from the surface of the tetrapods. “These holes mimic the sites on healthy cells where herpesviruses normally attach to infect them. Your glucoprotein groups dock here and are stuck.” This is how the immune system can find the viruses and trigger an antiviral immune response,” explains Adelung.
Adelung and his team have demonstrated this principle in a series of experiments with different herpes viruses and have published several studies in international journals. Colleagues from the microbiology and immunology departments at the University of Illinois, Chicago, also found that herpes infections in the mouse model healed quickly. After treatment with tetrapodal zinc oxide, the animals were all immunized.
Developed together to market maturity
The Kiel materials researchers worked closely with the university spin-off as early as the production of the tetrapodal zinc oxide. Phi-Stone AG further developed the process and was able to scale up production in a clean room laboratory set up specifically for this purpose. This created the conditions for market maturity, official approval as a medical additive and finally as a medical product. “Without the close exchange and the cooperation that has existed for more than ten years, such a rapid translation from the first research into a new active substance to a drug would not have been possible,” Adelung looks back.
With its unusual properties, tetrapodal zinc oxide can also be used for other technical applications, such as an additive to reinforce plastics or as an innovative filter material. Another production facility in Flintbek is already under construction.
The Innovation Transfer Awards ceremony took place on July 10, 2023 at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel. The prize money of 15,000 euros for second place was divided between two medical developments, 7,500 euros went to the cooperation between Rainer Adelung and Phi-Stone AG.
To the website about the research focus KiNSIS (Kiel Nano, Surface and Interface Science)
Source: Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel