Vaccination into the Dermal Compartment: Techniques, Challenges, and Prospects

Abstract

In 2019, an ‘influenza pandemic’ and ‘vaccine hesitancy’ were listed as two of the top 10 challenges to global health by the WHO. The skin is a unique vaccination site, due to its immune-rich milieu, which is evolutionarily primed to respond to challenge, and its ability to induce both humoral and cellular immunity. Vaccination into this dermal compartment offers a way of addressing both of the challenges presented by the WHO, as well as opening up avenues for novel vaccine formulation and dose-sparing strategies to enter the clinic. This review will provide an overview of the diverse range of vaccination techniques available to target the dermal compartment, as well as their current state, challenges, and prospects, and touch upon the formulations that have been developed to maximally benefit from these new techniques. These include needle and syringe techniques, microneedles, DNA tattooing, jet and ballistic delivery, and skin permeabilization techniques, including thermal ablation, chemical enhancers, ablation, electroporation, iontophoresis, and sonophoresis.

Anti-CoVid19 plasmid DNA vaccine induces a potent immune response in rodents by Pyro-drive Jet Injector intradermal inoculation

“…In recent years, the major vaccination method has been intramuscular administration using a needle syringe. Intradermal administration, however, is also a promising vaccination method because dermal tissue is an easily accessible immune-rich environment that can induce both humoral and cellular immunity 26 . Tebas et al reported that intradermal Ebola GP DNA vaccine administration demonstrates humoral and cellular immunogenicity advantages compared with intramuscular administration 27 .…”

“…In recent years, the major vaccination method has been intramuscular administration using a needle syringe. Intradermal administration, however, is also a promising vaccination method because dermal tissue is an easily accessible immune-rich environment that can induce both humoral and cellular immunity 26 . Tebas et al .…”

Intradermal Vaccination: A Potential Tool in the Battle Against the COVID-19 Pandemic?

“…Dendritic cells are distributed in the epidermis and in the dermis, in particular around its vascularized areas. 7 DDCs capture antigens deposited in the dermis and migrate to regional lymph nodes, where the antigens are presented to T lymphocytes. Soluble antigens also migrate to lymph nodes, resulting in activation of B lymphocytes.…”

Microarray patches enable the development of skin-targeted vaccines against COVID-19

“…Skin-targeted vaccines have the potential to be more immunogenic due to the immune-responsive nature of the skin compared to subcutaneous or intramuscular tissues targeted by prevailing vaccination routes [ 42 ]. These advantages, and the potential to obviate the cold-chain by stabilizing vaccine components in the delivery device, could enable minimally invasive delivery, self-administration, and economically advantageous refrigeration-free storage and distribution [ [42] , [43] , [44] , [45] , [46] ]. As such, skin-targeted vaccination using MAPs has received considerable attention, including recent efforts to develop MAP-delivered coronaviruses vaccines.…”