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patches on her hand
Credit: Tómas Tyner
Delivering malaria vaccines via a skin patch can streamline the vaccination process, according to preclinical research published in Scientific Reports.
The patch has arrays of tiny silicon microneedles that painlessly create temporary pores in the outermost layer of the skin, permitting the vaccine to flow into the skin.
Researchers used the patch to vaccinate mice with a live adenovirus engineered to deliver a protein from the malaria parasite Plasmodium yoelii.
The team found the patch could overcome one of the main problems with this type of vaccine—namely, although it induces high levels of immunity to malaria, it can also induce a strong immune response to the adenovirus itself.
This anti-adenovirus immunity prevents its repeated use as a vaccine, as the immune system recognizes the adenovirus and prevents it from delivering the malaria protein. So another vaccine type or adenovirus strain needs to be used in the booster immunization.
“What’s exciting from this work is that administration of this vaccine with the microneedle patch did not induce this strong anti-adenovirus immunity, even though very potent immunity to the malaria antigen is generated,” said study author Anne Moore, PhD, of University College Cork in Ireland.
This suggests the patch can facilitate the repeated use of the same adenovirus vaccine, thereby potentially reducing manufacturing costs of multiple vaccines.
In their experiments with mice, Dr Moore and her colleagues demonstrated that using the microneedle patch in the primary immunization does indeed permit repeated use of the same adenovirus vaccine. And this immunization method induced potent and highly protective immune responses against malaria.
Specifically, the researchers delivered a vaccine known as HAdV5-PyMSP142 to mice. They found the patch induced equivalent or enhanced antibody responses but decreased anti-vector responses when compared to intradermal delivery of the vaccine.
The addition of a heterologous vaccine known as MVA-PyMSP142 also produced greater antibody responses in mice primed with HAdV5-PyMSP142 via the patch, compared to those vaccinated intradermally.
The researchers observed the highest protection against blood-stage malaria when mice were vaccinated first with the patch and then intradermally.
In an attempt to commercialize this research, Dr Moore is heading to Silicon Valley next week to meet with venture capitalists and technology companies. 
patches on her hand
Credit: Tómas Tyner
Delivering malaria vaccines via a skin patch can streamline the vaccination process, according to preclinical research published in Scientific Reports.
The patch has arrays of tiny silicon microneedles that painlessly create temporary pores in the outermost layer of the skin, permitting the vaccine to flow into the skin.
Researchers used the patch to vaccinate mice with a live adenovirus engineered to deliver a protein from the malaria parasite Plasmodium yoelii.
The team found the patch could overcome one of the main problems with this type of vaccine—namely, although it induces high levels of immunity to malaria, it can also induce a strong immune response to the adenovirus itself.
This anti-adenovirus immunity prevents its repeated use as a vaccine, as the immune system recognizes the adenovirus and prevents it from delivering the malaria protein. So another vaccine type or adenovirus strain needs to be used in the booster immunization.
“What’s exciting from this work is that administration of this vaccine with the microneedle patch did not induce this strong anti-adenovirus immunity, even though very potent immunity to the malaria antigen is generated,” said study author Anne Moore, PhD, of University College Cork in Ireland.
This suggests the patch can facilitate the repeated use of the same adenovirus vaccine, thereby potentially reducing manufacturing costs of multiple vaccines.
In their experiments with mice, Dr Moore and her colleagues demonstrated that using the microneedle patch in the primary immunization does indeed permit repeated use of the same adenovirus vaccine. And this immunization method induced potent and highly protective immune responses against malaria.
Specifically, the researchers delivered a vaccine known as HAdV5-PyMSP142 to mice. They found the patch induced equivalent or enhanced antibody responses but decreased anti-vector responses when compared to intradermal delivery of the vaccine.
The addition of a heterologous vaccine known as MVA-PyMSP142 also produced greater antibody responses in mice primed with HAdV5-PyMSP142 via the patch, compared to those vaccinated intradermally.
The researchers observed the highest protection against blood-stage malaria when mice were vaccinated first with the patch and then intradermally.
In an attempt to commercialize this research, Dr Moore is heading to Silicon Valley next week to meet with venture capitalists and technology companies.
patches on her hand
Credit: Tómas Tyner
Delivering malaria vaccines via a skin patch can streamline the vaccination process, according to preclinical research published in Scientific Reports.
The patch has arrays of tiny silicon microneedles that painlessly create temporary pores in the outermost layer of the skin, permitting the vaccine to flow into the skin.
Researchers used the patch to vaccinate mice with a live adenovirus engineered to deliver a protein from the malaria parasite Plasmodium yoelii.
The team found the patch could overcome one of the main problems with this type of vaccine—namely, although it induces high levels of immunity to malaria, it can also induce a strong immune response to the adenovirus itself.
This anti-adenovirus immunity prevents its repeated use as a vaccine, as the immune system recognizes the adenovirus and prevents it from delivering the malaria protein. So another vaccine type or adenovirus strain needs to be used in the booster immunization.
“What’s exciting from this work is that administration of this vaccine with the microneedle patch did not induce this strong anti-adenovirus immunity, even though very potent immunity to the malaria antigen is generated,” said study author Anne Moore, PhD, of University College Cork in Ireland.
This suggests the patch can facilitate the repeated use of the same adenovirus vaccine, thereby potentially reducing manufacturing costs of multiple vaccines.
In their experiments with mice, Dr Moore and her colleagues demonstrated that using the microneedle patch in the primary immunization does indeed permit repeated use of the same adenovirus vaccine. And this immunization method induced potent and highly protective immune responses against malaria.
Specifically, the researchers delivered a vaccine known as HAdV5-PyMSP142 to mice. They found the patch induced equivalent or enhanced antibody responses but decreased anti-vector responses when compared to intradermal delivery of the vaccine.
The addition of a heterologous vaccine known as MVA-PyMSP142 also produced greater antibody responses in mice primed with HAdV5-PyMSP142 via the patch, compared to those vaccinated intradermally.
The researchers observed the highest protection against blood-stage malaria when mice were vaccinated first with the patch and then intradermally.
In an attempt to commercialize this research, Dr Moore is heading to Silicon Valley next week to meet with venture capitalists and technology companies.