Floss dental could deliver new generation vaccines, no required needle

The season of the flu vaccine is fast approaching, and although injections remain the most common form of vaccination, scientists work hard to find other ways to provide inoculations that do not imply pushing a needle in your flesh. And in a new study, researchers think they could have found another new approach: dental thread.

In new works, a team of scientists based in the United States has shown how it could work on laboratory mice, noting that vaccine delivery via dental wire was more effective in stimulating antibody production than if the vaccine was delivered under mouse languages and about as effective as a method of nasal spray delivery. If the results are true for humans, some vaccines could be given via dental adhesive tape and without needing needles.

“Here, we show that the flat strip dental wire can provide vaccines through the junctional epithelium of the gingival furrow, exploiting its properties which flee naturally,” wrote researchers in the study, which was published in July in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering. The junctional epithelium is the technical term for the deep fabric between the tooth and gum. Epithelial fabrics are one of the three layers of so -called mucous surfaces, which are the membranes that lubricate and protect your body’s organs and cavities, including your nose, your mouth and your intestines. Many pathogens such as flu and COVID-19 can enter the body through these mucous surfaces.

“If a vaccine is given by injection, antibodies are mainly produced in the bloodstream throughout the body, and relatively few antibodies are produced on mucous surfaces,” said the co-author of North Carolina, the co-author of the study and a nanomédicine teacher of the North Carolina State University. “But we know that when a vaccine is given via the mucous surface, antibodies are stimulated not only in the bloodstream, but also on mucous surfaces.”

“This improves the body’s ability to prevent infection, because there is an additional line of defense of antibodies before a pathogen enters the body,” he added.

Because the fabric between our teeth and our gums is more permeable than other similar tissues, such as those who line the stomach, lungs and intestines, it should be able to introduce a relatively easily vaccine in the body, triggering the production of antibodies through the mucous layers. To test this idea, the researchers applied the peptide influenza vaccine on the unshakable dental wire, then used it to filter the teeth of laboratory mice.

Gill and his colleagues then compared the production of animal antibodies to that of mice who received the peptide influenza vaccine via a nasal spray or under their language. The dental silk vaccine has delivered a significantly higher production of antibodies on mucous surfaces than inoculation under the language and was comparable to the nasal spray.

“This is extremely promising because most vaccine formulations cannot be given via the nasal epithelium – the characteristics of barrier in that the mucous surface prevents effective absorption of the vaccine,” said Gill, adding that nasal delivery also includes the risk of brain vaccine, which could cause safety problems. “Vaccination via the junctional epithelium offers no risk,” he said.

The team also tested the silk approach with three other vaccine classes – proteins, inactivated viruses and mRNA – and revealed that the new method has triggered antibodies both in blood and mucous surfaces. In addition, their effectiveness has not been hampered if mice consumed food or water just after dental silk.

To study the practical aspect of the approach of dental silk, researchers have also tested its mechanics with humans. Using silk choices, they coaled the dietary dye band and asked the participants in the study to try to obtain it as deeply between their teeth and their gums as they could. Participants were able to deposit around 60% of the dye in the gum pocket, which indicates that dental pickers coated with vaccines could be an effective way to deliver vaccines to this fabric.

Regarding costs, researchers think it would be similar to the price of other techniques for delivery of vaccines. However, there are limits inherent in a silk vaccine.

“For example, it can only be used for people with teeth,” said researchers in the study. “Consequently, this approach cannot be used in newborns (newborns) until they suffer an eruption of the teeth, which generally occurs around 6 months. In addition, the impact of gingival tissue infection on vaccination is not clear. Additional studies are necessary to answer this question. ”