Intradermal powder immunization with protein-containing vaccines

Abstract

The central importance for global public health policy of delivering life-saving vaccines for all children makes the development of efficacious and safe needle-free alternatives to hypodermic needles, preferably in a thermostable form, a matter of pressing urgency. This paper comprehensively reviews past in vivo studies on intradermal powder immunization with vaccine formulations that do not require refrigeration. Particular emphasis is given to the immune response in relation to antigen adjuvantation. While needle-free intradermal delivery of vaccines induces a predominantly Th2-type immune response, adjuvants powerfully enhance and modulate the magnitude and nature of the elicited immune response at various effector sites.

Keywords::

• epidermal powder immunization
• immunogenicity
• intradermal injection
• microparticles
• needle-free

Financial & competing interests disclosure

AJ Pollard is a Jenner Institute Investigator and James Martin Senior Fellow and acts as an investigator for clinical trials conducted on behalf of Oxford University, sponsored by vaccine manufacturers (Novartis Vaccines, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi-Aventis, Sanofi-Pasteur MSD, and Pfizer Vaccines), but does not receive any personal payments from them for travel or consultancy. Work by NT Weissmueller and HA Schiffter at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at Oxford was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Wellcome Trust. 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.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.