University of Queensland researchers have used a needle-free 'Nanopatch' technology to successfully deliver an inactivated poliovirus vaccine in rats.
The work was carried out in collaboration with the World Health Organisation, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, and vaccine technology company Vaxxas.
Professor Mark Kendall's team at UQ's Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology used an inactivated Type 2 poliovirus vaccine in a rat model. They found that to trigger a functional immune response they needed 40 times less polio vaccine with the Nanopatch technology than with tradtional needle and syringe methods.
Published in Scientific Reports, the authors say that their result is the highest level of 'dose-sparing' achieved for an inactivated polio vaccine in rats.
The next step will be clinical testing.
Lead author Dr David Muller, UQ, said in a media release that the work demonstrated a key advantage of the Nanopatch: it targets the abundant immune cell populations in the skin’s outer layers, rather than muscle, resulting in a more efficient vaccine delivery system.
Clinical success and widespread use of the Nanopatch against polio could help in the current campaign to eradicate polio. It could be produced and distributed at a cheaper cost, and its ease of use would make it suitable for house-to-house vaccination efforts in endemic areas with only minimal training required.
A present, only Afghanistan and Pakistan remain polio-endemic, but all countries are at risk until the disease is eradicated everywhere. The first human vaccination studies are scheduled for this year.
The work was funded by the World Health Organisation, Vaxxas, Rotary District 9630 and the Rotary Foundation.
Nanopatch technology is being commercialised by Vaxxas Pty Ltd, which has scaled the Nanopatch from use in small models to prototypes for human use.