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Vaccine delivery with microneedle skin patches in nonhuman primates

Nature Biotechnology volume 31, pages 1082–1085 (2013)Cite this article

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Transcutaneous drug delivery from planar skin patches is effective for small-molecule drugs and skin-permeable vaccine adjuvants1. However, to achieve efficient delivery of vaccines and other macromolecular therapeutics into the skin, penetration of the stratum corneum is needed. Topically applied skin patches with micron-scale projections ('microneedles') pierce the upper layers of the skin and enable vaccines that are coated on or encapsulated within the microneedles to be dispersed into the skin2. Although millimeter-scale syringes have shown promise for vaccine delivery in humans3 and technologies, such as the Dermaroller (Dermaroller, Wolfenbüttel, Germany), exist for creating microscale punctures in the skin for delivery of solutions of therapeutics2, solid microprojection microneedles coated with dry vaccine formulations offer a number of valuable features for vaccination, including reduced risk of blood-borne pathogen transmission or needle-stick injury, the potential for vaccine administration by minimally trained personnel or even self administration and the use of solid-state vaccine formulations that may reduce or eliminate cold-chain requirements in vaccine distribution2. Recent studies in mice have demonstrated the ability of microneedles to effectively deliver vaccines to the skin, eliciting protective immunity to influenza, hepatitis C and West Nile virus2.

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Figure 1: Fabrication and delivery of microneedle vaccines.
Figure 2: Microneedle patch vaccination is immunogenic in rhesus macaques.

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Acknowledgements

We thank E. Borducchi and J. Smith for generous advice and assistance. We also thank J. Smith, E. Borducchi and A. McNally for their technical assistance. This work was supported in part by the Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard, the US National Institutes of Health (AI095109, AI096040, AI095985, AI078526 and AI060354) and the Department of Defense (contracts W911NF-07-D-0004 and W911NF-07-D0004, T.O. 8). D.J.I. is an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. We thank the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research Cancer Center Support Grant and the Swanson Biotechnology Center core facilities that it supports to facilitate this work. P.T.H. acknowledges support of the David H. Koch Chair. We dedicate this paper to the memory of Officer Sean Collier for his caring service to the MIT community and for his sacrifice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Engineering, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

    Peter C DeMuth, Adrienne V Li, Wuhbet Abraham, Heikyung Suh, Jamal Elkhader & Darrell J Irvine

  2. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

    Peter C DeMuth, Wuhbet Abraham, Heikyung Suh, Paula T Hammond & Darrell J Irvine

  3. Center for Virology and Vaccine Research, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Peter Abbink, Jinyan Liu, Hualin Li, Kelly A Stanley, Kaitlin M Smith, Christy L Lavine, Michael S Seaman & Dan H Barouch

  4. New England Primate Research Center, Harvard Medical School, Southborough, Massachusetts, USA

    Joshua A Kramer & Andrew D Miller

  5. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

    Wuhbet Abraham & Heikyung Suh

  6. Department of Chemical Engineering, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

    Paula T Hammond

  7. Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

    Paula T Hammond & Darrell J Irvine

  8. Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, MIT and Harvard, Charlestown, Massachusetts, USA.

    Dan H Barouch & Darrell J Irvine

  9. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, Maryland, USA

    Darrell J Irvine

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Correspondence to Paula T Hammond, Dan H Barouch or Darrell J Irvine.

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DeMuth, P., Li, A., Abbink, P. et al. Vaccine delivery with microneedle skin patches in nonhuman primates. Nat Biotechnol 31, 1082–1085 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.2759

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