New Needle-Free Vaccine Stimulates Immune Response

Recent research has found a new approach to stimulate the skin immune response to fight various pathogens with an easy-to-use needle-free vaccine. Researchers at Charité-Berlin, Germany, and UPMC University Paris, Sorbonne Universités have been working together for 10 years to determine how to use the skin immune system to develop a new, non-invasive vaccination method.

According to Annika Vogt, a researcher involved in the work from the Department of Dermatology & Allergy at Charité-Berlin and UPMC University Paris, “In this study, we show how a painless method helps such vaccines cross the skin. The method ‘wakes up’ skin immune cells so that they are ready to catch the vaccine and generate an immune response.”

To make this discovery, Vogt and colleagues treated natural skin samples with a novel method called cyanoacrylate skin surface stripping (CSSS). Then, they applied to the skin surface 200 nm particles that reflect the size of viruses and engineered particulate vaccines and used microscopy to compare the penetration of the particles. They found that the CSSS method enhanced the penetration of the particles to the deeper skin layers, especially to the hair follicles, and activated skin dendritic cells, which are key players in the orchestration of the skin immune system.

The results of their research suggest that the combination of an adequate skin treatment with a vaccine specifically designed to target skin immune cells could become a powerful tool for mass vaccination. And, combined with conventional injections, such skin vaccination could help in generating broader, more powerful responses in the fight against severe, chronic viral infections such as HIV. “If we learn how to better reach and communicate with skin immune cells from the outside, we would be able to develop new tools for the treatment of allergies, inflammatory skin diseases or skin cancer,” said Vogt.

The research was published in the January 2015 issue of Experimental Dermatology.