Covid-19 vaccine in patch form is coming soon
Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, researchers have redoubled efforts to create a patch that painlessly delivers life-saving drugs into the body.
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| Expert Muller and members of the research team. Photo: CNA |
According to Channelnewsasia, the above technique could help reduce the crying of babies at the doctor's office, help people with syringe phobia overcome their fear and revolutionize medicine.
Additionally, skin patches would be easier to transport because they would not require refrigeration and could even improve the efficacy of the vaccine.
A new study on mice has shown promising results, according to a paper published in the journal Science Advances. A team of American and Australian researchers used a 1-square-centimeter patch containing more than 5,000 microscopic spikes.
“It's so small you can't see it,” said David Muller, a virus expert at the University of Queensland and co-author of the paper.
The spikes are coated with an experimental vaccine and the patch is applied to the body with a hockey puck-like device. “It’s like you’re gently tapping your skin,” Mueller said.
The researchers used a type of vaccine called a “subunit,” which creates spikes on the surface of the coronavirus. Mice were injected with the vaccine either by syringe or via a patch over two minutes.
The immune systems of people who receive the vaccine patch will produce neutralizing antibodies after two doses. This is important to preventCovid-19and patches work better than syringes.
The researchers also found that a small group of mice that received just one dose of the vaccine, which contained an adjuvant used to boost the immune response, did not get sick. Vaccines are usually injected into the muscle, but muscle tissue does not contain many of the antibody cells needed to respond to the drug, Muller said. In addition, the tiny spikes killed local skin, which alerted the body to a problem and triggered a stronger immune response.
For scientists, the vaccine patch is also more convenient to transport than other vaccines. First, when dried on the patch, the vaccine is stable for at least 30 days at 25 degrees Celsius and for a week at 40 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, vaccines made by Moderna and Pfizer only last a few hours at room temperature. The vaccine patch offers a huge advantage, especially for developing countries.
Second, the vaccine patch is easy to use and does not require trained health care workers to use it, said Mr. Muller.
The patch used in the study is manufactured by Australian company Vaxxas. Human trials are scheduled for April. Two other US companies are also in the race to create a vaccine patch: Micron Biomedical and Vaxess.
