Flu patches

Amid the global concern surrounding the swine-flu pandemic, researchers at Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a way of delivering flu vaccine through skin patches containing microneedles.

This has proven to be just as effective at preventing influenza in mice as intramuscular, hypodermic flu immunisation.

The team of researchers believe that the microneedle skin-patch method of delivering the flu vaccine might one day be used to vaccinate people against influenza.

The patches used in their experiments contained an array of stainless-steel microneedles coated with an inactivated influenza virus. The patches were pressed manually into the skin and, after a few minutes, the vaccine coating dissolved off within the skin.

The coated microneedle immunisations were compared to conventional intramuscular hypodermic injections at the same dose in another group of mice.

The researchers found that the microneedle vaccinations induced strong immune responses against the influenza virus that were comparable to immune responses induced by the intramuscular, hypodermic immunisations.