Microneedle-mediated vaccine delivery: Harnessing cutaneous immunobiology to improve efficacy

Abstract

Microneedle-mediated vaccines hold enormous potential for patient benefit. However, in order for microneedle vaccine strategies to fulfill their potential, the proportion of an immune response that is due to the local action of delivered vaccines on skin antigen-presenting cells, and what is due to a systemic effect from vaccines reaching the systemic circulation, must be determined. Moreover, industry will need to invest significantly in new equipment and instrumentation in order to mass-produce microneedle vaccines consistently. Finally, microneedles will need to demonstrate consistent dose delivery across patient groups and match this to reliable immune responses before they will replace tried-and-tested needle-and-syringe-based approaches.

Inactivated polio vaccination using a microneedle patch is immunogenic in the rhesus macaque

“…In addition, IPV vaccination using microneedle patches may reduce vaccine cost by possible dose sparing enabled by skin vaccination, as seen for intradermal injection of IPV and other vaccines [22] and generation of improved immunity, as seen for microneedle vaccination using other vaccines [23][24][25].…”

Effective use of transdermal drug delivery in children

“…Comprehensive reviews on MN including their fabrication, classification, available devices and their applications in drug delivery, including immunization, are available elsewhere [194][195][196]. MN effectively bypass the SC barrier and therefore expand the applications of transdermal drug delivery to large molecular size entities.…”

Multifunctional particle-constituted microneedle arrays as cutaneous or mucosal vaccine adjuvant-delivery systems

“…[9][10][11][12] In particular, MA vaccines possess the potential to simplify immunization programs by eliminating the use of hypodermic metal needles, allowing self-administration of vaccine during pandemics and, thus, facilitating large-scale immunization in developing nations with a critical shortage of healthcare workers. 13,14 To date, various types of MAs have been designed for vaccine delivery and can be roughly summarized as 2 categories: the dissolvable and non-dissolvable ones. 7 Usually, the non-dissolvable MAs include the hollow metal microneedles just for injection of the enclosed contents and the solid ones that are made of stiff inorganic materials, such as metal, silicon, glass and ceramics, bearing, or not, the active ingredients on microneedle surfaces and, therefore, function mainly as a poking device, micro-injection or as a master mold for fabrication of dissolving MAs.…”