Applying ceramic nanoporous microneedle arrays as a transport interface in egg plants and an ex-vivo human skin model

Controlled release of a model vaccine by nanoporous ceramic microneedle arrays

“…We previously showed that DC-specific antibodies are released and can reach skin DCs when applied via ceramic npMNAs on human skin in situ (Verhoeven et al, 2012). Based on these observations we now explored the efficacy of ceramic npMNAs to modify DCs in situ by applying peptide antigen vaccines to the dermis of mice and to induce the generation of OVA-specific CD8 + effector T cells in vivo.…”

“…The npMNA-MEMS technology has been developed to achieve mechanically strong microneedles seamlessly integrated with an intrinsic vaccine reservoir and is investigated here for its vaccination performance (Bystrova and Luttge, 2011;Verhoeven et al, 2012). In brief, the fabrication process for npMNA consist of four essential steps: Casting an alumina-based slurry (i) into a PDMS production micromold, drying the slurry by controlled evaporation of solvent forming a green body (ii), releasing the dried green body from the mold, which is followed by punching npMNAs of the desired diameter (iii) and loading npMNA green bodies into an oven to burn out the polymeric binder at 1450 C (iv) (Fig.…”

“…A promising technical alternative to standard needle and syringe injection is the use of microneedle arrays (MNAs) to deliver vaccines into the skin Prow et al, 2010;Kim and Prausnitz, 2011;van der Maaden et al, 2012;Verhoeven et al, 2012;Kim and Sharpless, 2012). Intradermal vaccination with MNAs has shown significant advantages compared to vaccination using standard needle and syringe.…”

“…Subsequently, the nanopores can contain a dry or liquid compound formulation. Using MyLife Technologies ceramic npMNA technology, we previously demonstrated the delivery of antibodies to human skin DCs (Verhoeven et al, 2012). However, it is not known how the use of these novel ceramic npMNAs for vaccine application impacts the induction of T cell-mediated immunity.…”

“…However, it is not known how the use of these novel ceramic npMNAs for vaccine application impacts the induction of T cell-mediated immunity. We therefore expanded our initial studies (Verhoeven et al, 2012) and tested these novel npMNAs in vivo by applying OVA 257-264 peptide mixed with agonistic anti-CD40 antibodies to study the induction of OVA-specific effector CD8 + T cells, which we compared to intradermal injections that have shown to result in successful induction of OVA-specific CD8 + T cells (Carbone and Bevan, 1989). Additionally we studied the kinetics of antigen release in a human skin explant model.…”