Measles vaccination using a microneedle patch

Abstract

Measles vaccination programs would benefit from delivery methods that decrease cost, simplify logistics, and increase safety. Conventional subcutaneous injection is limited by the need for skilled healthcare professionals to reconstitute and administer injections, and by the need for safe needle handling and disposal to reduce the risk of disease transmission through needle re-use and needlestick injury. Microneedles are micron-scale, solid needles coated with a dry formulation of vaccine that dissolves in the skin within minutes after patch application. By avoiding the use of hypodermic needles, vaccination using a microneedle patch could be carried out by minimally trained personnel with reduced risk of blood-borne disease transmission. The goal of this study was to evaluate measles vaccination using a microneedle patch to address some of the limitations of subcutaneous injection. Viability of vaccine virus dried onto a microneedle patch was stabilized by incorporation of the sugar, trehalose, and loss of viral titer was less than 1 log10(TCID50) after storage for at least 30 days at room temperature. Microneedle patches were then used to immunize cotton rats with the Edmonston-Zagreb measles vaccine strain. Vaccination using microneedles at doses equaling the standard human dose or one-fifth the human dose generated neutralizing antibody levels equivalent to those of a subcutaneous immunization at the same dose. These results show that measles vaccine can be stabilized on microneedles and that vaccine efficiently reconstitutes in vivo to generate a neutralizing antibody response equivalent to that generated by subcutaneous injection.

The contribution of vaccination to global health: past, present and future

“…New adjuvants directed at improving the immune response are being tried and the success of the RTS,S vaccine [31,32] is due in large part to the use of the powerful adjuvant AS01. Better methods of preserving vaccines at ambient temperature are being developed [38] and alternative delivery systems including needle-less devices are being explored [39], both of which could facilitate uptake of vaccines in hard to reach areas. Table 3 indicates some of the organisms that are currently the target of vaccine research; recent and continuing technical advances should make it technically possible to develop effective vaccines against most of these pathogens.…”

Microneedle Manufacture: Assessing Hazards and Control Measures

“…There are five principal classes of microneedle used for drug delivery applications: solid, drug coated solid, hollow, dissolvable, and swellable [1][2][3][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. The fabrication of solid MN arrays is procedurally the simplest approach and can be constructed from a variety of conventional and inexpensive polymers such as polystyrene, polycarbonate, and polymethylmethacrylate [8][9][10][11][12].…”

“…The fabrication of solid MN arrays is procedurally the simplest approach and can be constructed from a variety of conventional and inexpensive polymers such as polystyrene, polycarbonate, and polymethylmethacrylate [8][9][10][11][12]. Such polymers enable the acquisition of mechanically robust arrays that can withstand repeated handling by inexpert users, but the retention of the "sharp" aspect can inadvertently present a needlestick hazard where such devices are carelessly discarded within the workspace.…”

Microneedles for drug delivery: trends and progress

“…There has been a lot of research conducted on MNs for the delivery and monitoring of various drugs such as glucose control for diabetics (Ito et al, 2006;Nordquist et al, 2007;Ainslie & Desai, 2008;El-Laboudi et al, 2013;Taylor & Sahota, 2013;Ita, 2014), Alzheimer's disease (Wei-Ze et al, 2010), anticancer (Fang et al, 2008) and other conditions (Ezan, 2013). Vaccines have also been a prominent research field with numerous studies developed to allow dose sparing effects (Edens et al, 2013;Norman et al, 2014;van der Maaden et al, 2014). There have been multiple studies conducted to optimize the delivery of drugs using MNs with numerous methods to fabricate them.…”

“…One such example for vaccines delivery is reported by Edmonston-Zagreb for measles vaccination (Nordquist et al, 2007;Herwadkar & Banga, 2012;Kis et al, 2012;Singh et al, 2012;Edens et al, 2013;Koutsonanos et al, 2013;Ling & Chen, 2013;Cai et al, 2014;Gill et al, 2014). Vaccinations have the capacity to be delivered using MN patches, which require the patient to have no specialized training or the need for cold/refrigerated storage; this in turn can reduce the spread of diseases Edens et al, 2013).…”