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ABSTRACT
Introduction
Infectious pathogens are global disrupters. Progress in biomedical science and technology has expanded the public health arsenal against infectious diseases. Specifically, vaccination has reduced the burden of infectious pathogens. Engineering systemic immunity by harnessing the cutaneous immune network has been particularly attractive since the skin is an easily accessible immune-responsive organ. Recent advances in skin-targeted drug delivery strategies have enabled safe, patient-friendly, and controlled deployment of vaccines to cutaneous microenvironments for inducing long-lived pathogen-specific immunity to mitigate infectious diseases, including COVID-19.
Areas covered
This review briefly discusses the basics of cutaneous immunomodulation and provides a concise overview of emerging skin-targeted drug delivery systems that enable safe, minimally invasive, and effective intracutaneous administration of vaccines for engineering systemic immune responses to combat infectious diseases.
Expert opinion
In-situ engineering of the cutaneous microenvironment using emerging skin-targeted vaccine delivery systems offers remarkable potential to develop diverse immunization strategies against pathogens. Mechanistic studies with standard correlates of vaccine efficacy will be important to compare innovative intracutaneous drug delivery strategies to each other and to existing clinical approaches. Cost-benefit analyses will be necessary for developing effective commercialization strategies. Significant involvement of industry and/or government will be imperative for successfully bringing novel skin-targeted vaccine delivery methods to market for their widespread use.
Article highlights
Emerging infectious diseases, such as COVID-19, are global disrupters.
Skin-targeted drug delivery strategies facilitate in-situ engineering of the immune-responsive cutaneous microenvironment to enable diverse vaccination strategies against infectious pathogens.
Emerging intracutaneous drug delivery technologies, including STAR particles, spherical nucleic acids, microneedle arrays (MNAs), and MNA-administered micro- or nano-particles, are versatile platforms for effective vaccine deployment to skin microenvironments.
Continuous progress in cutaneous drug delivery approaches is needed to complement rapidly expanding knowledge of skin immunology and infectious diseases.
Clinical translation and commercialization of innovative skin-targeted vaccine delivery systems remains an exciting goal for enabling next-generation immunization approaches.
Acknowledgements
E Korkmaz is supported by a grant from the Institute for Infection, Inflammation, and Immunity in Children (i4Kids). SC Balmert is supported by a fellowship from the NIH National Cancer Institute (T32-CA175294). LD Falo Jr is supported by NIH Grants (R01-AR074285, R01-AR071277, and R01-AR068249).
Declaration of Interest
E Korkmaz is an inventor of an intellectual property with microneedle arrays. G Erdos is an inventor of intellectual properties with microneedle arrays and a shareholder in SkinJect. LD Falo Jr is an inventor of intellectual properties with microneedle arrays and a co-founder and scientific advisor of SkinJect. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.
Reviewer disclosures
A reviewer on this manuscript has disclosed that they have a financial interest in a company (Micron Biomedical) that is developing microneedle patch technology for skin vaccination. The conflict of interest is actively managed by the reviewer‘s University, Georgia Tech. Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no other relevant financial relationships or otherwise to disclose.