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Needle-Free Vaccine Injection

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Drug Delivery

Part of the book series: Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology ((HEP,volume 197))

Abstract

Millions of people die each year from infectious disease, with a main stumbling block being our limited ability to deliver vaccines to optimal sites in the body. Specifically, effective methods to deliver vaccines into outer skin and mucosal layers – sites with immunological, physical and practical advantages that cannot be targeted via traditional delivery methods – are lacking. This chapter investigates the challenge for physical delivery approaches that are primarily needle-free. We examine the skin’s structural and immunogenic properties in the context of the physical cell targeting requirements of the viable epidermis, and we review selected current physical cell targeting technologies engineered to meet these needs: needle and syringe, diffusion patches, liquid jet injectors, and microneedle arrays/patches. We then focus on biolistic particle delivery: we first analyze engineering these systems to meet demanding clinical needs, we then examine the interaction of biolistic devices with the skin, focusing on the mechanical interactions of ballistic impact and cell death, and finally we discuss the current clinical outcomes of one key application of engineered delivery devices – DNA vaccines.

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Abbreviations

A :

Particle cross-sectional area

APC (APCs):

Antigen-presenting cell(s)

CST:

Contoured shock tube

CHMP:

Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use

D :

Particle resistive force

dDCs:

Dermal dendritic cells

DEM:

Discrete element model

DGV:

Doppler global velocimetry

GMT:

Geometric mean titer

HIV:

Human immunodeficiency virus

PIV:

Particle image velocimetry

RH:

Relative humidity

SC:

Stratum corneum

VE:

Viable epidermis

V :

Particle velocity

v i,ve :

Viable epidermis boundary

ρ t :

Density of target

σ :

Yield stress of target

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN), The University of Queensland, Building 75 – Cnr of College and Cooper Road The University of Queensland Brisbane, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia

    Mark A. F. Kendall

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  1. Mark A. F. Kendall
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Correspondence to Mark A. F. Kendall .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. FB Biologie, Chemie, Pharmazie, Inst. Pharmazie, FU Berlin, Königin-Luise-Str. 2-4, Berlin, 14195, Berlin, Germany

    Monika Schäfer-Korting

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Kendall, M.A.F. (2010). Needle-Free Vaccine Injection. In: Schäfer-Korting, M. (eds) Drug Delivery. Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology, vol 197. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-00477-3_7

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