University Of Queensland A new research, headed by Mark Kendall, from UQ Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology illustrates that a vaccine presented by a nanopatch appears to provoke a correspondingly defensive immune response as a vaccine supplied by needle and syringe, but seems to use 100 times less vaccine.

This finding appears to have connotations for several vaccination programs in both industrialised and developing nations, which ought to triumph over issues with lack of vaccine and distribution. Being both painless and needle-free, the nanopatch seems to provide hope for those with needle phobia plus enhancing the vaccination experience for young children.

The Nanopatch seems to aim at specific antigen-presenting cells discovered in a thin layer just under the skin surface and consequently they utilized less than one hundredth of the dose used by a needle while provoking a similar immune response. The researcher mentioned that their outcome appears to be ten times superior as compared to the finest outcomes attained by other delivery methods and does not seem to need other immune stimulants, known as adjuvants or multiple vaccinations.

Since the Nanopatch needs neither a trained practitioner to administer it nor refrigeration, it appears to encompass massive likelihood to economically transport vaccines in developing nations. Professor Kendall mentioned that the Nanopatch was apparently much smaller than a postage stamp and included numerous thousands of thickly bundled up projections unseen to the human eye.

The influenza vaccine was claimed to be dry coated onto these projections and rubbed on the skin of mice for two minutes.

Professor Kendall commented, “By using far less vaccine we believe that the Nanopatch will enable the vaccination of many more people. When compared to a needle and syringe a nanopatch is cheap to produce and it is easy to imagine a situation in which a government might provide vaccinations for a pandemic such as swine flu to be collected from a chemist or sent in the mail.”

The researcher mentioned that their subsequent step is to establish the efficiency of Nanopatches in human clinical trials.

Professor Kendall’s team encompasses scientists from UQ’s Diamantina Institute for Cancer, Immunology and Metabolic Medicine and Faculty of Health Sciences and also University of Melbourne.