Scientists have developed a technique to transmit drugs through the skin. It could be used to inject vaccines without injections.
- There is a technique for applying drugs without injection using an electrospray.
- Researchers have improved it to be more effective in order to better hit the intended target.
- According to them, this could make it possible to administer vaccines without injection.
This is good news for sting phobics: researchers at Rutgers University in the United States are working on a new method of delivering drugs through the skin. According to them, this technique could be used to perform vaccinations without injection. Their results are published in the specialized journal NatureCommunications.
Vaccine, medicine: a method of injection without injection
The technique used by these researchers is to apply a “electrospray“on the skin, which is a”industrial spray coating process“.”In electrospray deposition, manufacturers apply a high voltage to a flowing liquid, such as a biopharmaceutical, converting it into fine particles, they develop. Each of these droplets evaporates as it travels towards a target area, depositing a solid precipitate from the original solution.”
This method was not invented by these scientists, it is already used for certain medical patches. In fact, this team perfected it to better control the target region in the sputter area and the electrical properties of the deposited microscopic particles. “Current methods are only about 40% effective, believes one of the main authors of this research, Jonathan Singer. However, thanks to the advanced engineering techniques we have developed, we can achieve 100% efficiency.”
What can be the applications of these needleless injections?
This greater efficiency gives researchers hope for an application in vaccination, but this innovative technique could be used in many other medical fields. Indeed, these materialsare used on medical devices implanted in the body, such as stents, defibrillators and pacemakers”, say the authors. “Being able to apply a product with 100% efficiency means that no material would be wasted allowing devices or vaccines to be coated in this way“, says Sarah Park, a doctoral student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Rutgers University and co-author of this scientific article. She adds that the method could be more economical for the production of drugs, compared to certain so-called materials. Their future work will be dedicated in particular to the search for substances compatible with this administration technique.