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SPECIAL POSTING: READER COMMENT ON MICRONEEDLE PATCH MEASLES VACCINATION

Wednesday, 24th of July 2013

Reader Robin Biellik draws my attention to the following article showing use of a microneedle patch for measles vaccination. Has the time come to move from animal to human studies?

Comments welcome at rdavis@africamail.com

Good reading.

BD


Chris Edens et al., ‘Measles Vaccination using a Microneedle Patch,’ Vaccine 31 (2013), 3403-3409

Abstract below; full text available to journal subscribers

Measles vaccination programs would benefit from delivery methods that decrease cost, simplify logistics, and increase safety. Conventional subcutaneous injection is limited by the need for skilled healthcare professionals to reconstitute and administer injections, and by the need for safe needle handling and disposal to reduce the risk of disease transmission through needle re-use and needlestick injury. Microneedles and micron-scale, solid needles coated with a dry formulation of vaccine that dissolves in the skin within minutes after patch application. By avoiding the use of hypodermic needles, vaccination using a microneedle patch could be carried out by minimally trained personnel with reduced risk of blood-borne disease transmission.

The goal of this study was to evaluate measles vaccination using a microneedle patch to address some of the limitations of subcutaneous injection. Viability of vaccine virus dried onto a microneedle patch was stabilized by incorporation of the sugar, trehalose and loss of viral titer was less than 1 log₁₀ (TCID₅₀) after storage for at least 30 days at room temperature. Microneedle patches where then used to immunize cotton rats with the Edmonston-Zagreb measles vaccine strain. Vaccination using microneedles at doses equalling the standard human dose or one-fifth the human dose generated neutralizing antibody levels equivalent to those of a subcutaneous immunization at the same dose. These results show that measles vaccine can be stabilized on microneedles and that vaccine efficiently reconstitutes in vivo to generate a neutralizing antibody response equivalent to that generated by subcutaneous injection.

Copyright 2012 Elsevier Ltd.