An ultra-low-cost electroporator with microneedle electrodes (ePatch) for SARS-CoV-2 vaccination

Abstract

Vaccination against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and other pathogens with pandemic potential requires safe, protective, inexpensive, and easily accessible vaccines that can be developed and manufactured rapidly at a large scale. DNA vaccines can achieve these criteria, but induction of strong immune responses has often required bulky, expensive electroporation devices. Here, we report an ultra-low-cost (<1 USD), handheld (<50 g) electroporation system utilizing a microneedle electrode array (“ePatch”) for DNA vaccination against SARS-CoV-2. The low cost and small size are achieved by combining a thumb-operated piezoelectric pulser derived from a common household stove lighter that emits microsecond, bipolar, oscillatory electric pulses and a microneedle electrode array that targets delivery of high electric field strength pulses to the skin’s epidermis. Antibody responses against SARS-CoV-2 induced by this electroporation system in mice were strong and enabled at least 10-fold dose sparing compared to conventional intramuscular or intradermal injection of the DNA vaccine. Vaccination was well tolerated with mild, transient effects on the skin. This ePatch system is easily portable, without any battery or other power source supply, offering an attractive, inexpensive approach for rapid and accessible DNA vaccination to combat COVID-19, as well as other epidemics.

Frugal Science Powered by Curiosity

“…By leveraging similar principles to ElectroPen and combining it with another attractive vaccine delivery technology called microneedles, we developed a new platform called ePatch: an ultralow-cost, portable microneedle electroporator to deliver DNA vaccines. 18 Through benchmarking against state-of-the-art electroporation technologies, we have shown comparable efficacy and better safety delivering GFP-encoding plasmids. In a mice vaccination study with SARS-CoV-2, we have shown robust immune responses with at least 10-fold dose sparing, relative to intradermal and intramuscular injection alone, as well as protection against a SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus elevated from 20% to 90%.…”

Development of DNA Vaccine Candidate against SARS-CoV-2

“…A DNA vaccine is relatively inexpensive. Xia et al have demonstrated that the handheld electroporation device with a microneedle electrode array can easily overcome the relative expensiveness of the conventional electroporation that is usually needed for inducing a strong immune response [ 16 ]. The development of DNA vaccines is time-saving as it is undemanding to produce large amounts of the target antigen compared with making proteins, growing viruses and bacteria, or synthesizing mRNA [ 45 ].…”

“…According to the recent pandemic experience, the speed of vaccine development is crucial especially when the infectious agent is characterized by a high mutation rate and high transmissibility. Thus, the most important requirements for the anti-COVID-19 vaccines that are safeness, protectiveness, accessibility, and inexpensiveness can be achieved via DNA vaccines [ 16 ]. Studies have already demonstrated the positive outcome of the DNA vaccine of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein [ 47 , 48 ].…”

“…However, despite their advantages [ 13 ], DNA vaccines deserve no less attention. The key beneficial features of DNA vaccines include the following: DNA vaccines induce cellular and humoral immunity while they do not induce an anti-vector immune response, DNA vaccines are effective even in the new-born children, they are safe, stable, the manufacturing technology itself is simple, fast [ 14 , 15 ], and inexpensive [ 16 ]. DNA vaccines can be processed at 4 °C which makes them much more durable compared with the mRNA technology [ 17 ].…”

The Importance of Nanocarrier Design and Composition for an Efficient Nanoparticle-Mediated Transdermal Vaccination

“…Microneedles are undoubtedly the most developed devices to date in transdermal immunization [52]. Although recently a very low-cost microneedle-anchored electroporator device for immunization against SARS-CoV-2 was shown, there are still challenges to overcome [53]. Current studies aim to overcome the remaining challenges in this area [54].…”