Don't be afraid of injections: the Oxford University team has developed ultrasonic vaccine delivery technology that won't damage the skin.
CTOnews.com, December 4 (Xinhua)-- according to foreign media New Scientist, Dr. Darcy Dunn-Lawless of the University of Oxford recently developed a new "needle-free vaccine" that uses ultrasound technology to deliver the vaccine through the skin, keeping patients away from fear from needles.
Darcy and his colleagues mixed vaccine molecules with tiny goblet proteins, then smeared the liquid mixture on the skin of mice and exposed it to ultrasound for about a minute and a half.
At first, the ultrasound pushed the mixture into the upper layer of the skin, where the shape of the protein formed bubbles filled with vaccines. As the ultrasound hits the skin, these bubbles begin to burst and release the vaccine. As the experiment went on, the effect of bubble rupture also cleared some dead skin cells, making the skin more transparent and allowing more and more vaccine molecules to pass through the skin.
Although ultrasound technology can only deliver the vaccine to the upper layer of the skin, Darcy says this relatively shallow process is sufficient for immunization.
In tests on live mice, the researchers found that although ultrasound delivered 700 times less vaccine molecules than traditional injection methods, the animals produced more antibodies.
In response, Darcy further explained that the increase in antibody production may be due to more immune cells in the skin than in muscle, but the researchers are still investigating. The researchers also said the mice showed no signs of pain and no significant skin damage.
CTOnews.com Note: the reliability of this method is still in doubt. Darcy says bubbles in the skin may be unpredictable-either unevenly releasing vaccine molecules or releasing unpredictable vaccine quantities.
But he also said he and his colleagues are working on better ways to further analyze the vaccination process by recording the sound of bubbles bursting.
