Single-injection vaccine device still a long way off

Conclusion Injection of a microstructure device that can give time-delayed release of a vaccine or drug could have great potential in medicine. As the researchers noted, the structures are tiny and fully biodegradable, so they shouldn't cause a foreign-body reaction. But they also mentioned the size – the lightweight device could only hold a small amount of solution. However, the researchers suggested that varying the wall thickness to create larger cores could greatly increase the device's capacity. At this stage, the device has only been tested in a single experiment in mice. Further research in mice would be needed to see whether you could move on to testing it in humans. It's very difficult to stay at this stage which human vaccines the device could potentially be used for or what obstacles there could in terms of safety and effectiveness. Various experts have given their response to the findings. Dr Anita Milicic, senior scientist at the University of Oxford's Jenner Institute, said: "Single-dose vaccination has been a long-standing goal of the WHO [World Health Organisation]: since the early 1990s researchers have been trying to create a vaccine formulation that is capable of delivering the equivalent of two or three prime-boost vaccinations with a single immunisation. "Achieving this would circumvent many obstacles that immunisation coverage faces today: non-compliance, missed or delayed doses, logistical problems of vaccine storage and administration ...
Source: NHS News Feed - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Pregnancy/child Source Type: news