2023-04-24 20:00:00
Since Edward Jenner discovered the method to fight smallpox, vaccines have saved millions of lives around the world. Vaccines, in fact, are responsible for the eradication of various diseases that just a few decades ago were as common as a cold. However, beyond their discovery and manufacture, one of the main challenges of the vaccination process consists precisely in getting these vaccines to the people who need them, something that is not always easy, since mmany of them require cold storagewhich makes it difficult to send them to remote areas that do not have the necessary infrastructure.
Now, however, a team of MIT researchers has found a possible solution to this problem: a mobile vaccine printer that could be used to produce hundreds of doses of vaccine in a day. “The prototype, which fits on a table, could be deployed anywhere vaccines are needed,” the researchers explain.
Skin vaccination
“The goal is to have vaccine production on demand,” says a scientist at MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Ana Jaklenec. “If, for example, there was an Ebola outbreak in a particular region, we could send some of these printers to the site and vaccinate people on the spot,” she adds.
And it is that the printer designed by the Koch team generates patches equipped with hundreds of microneedles containing the doses of a set of selected vaccines. This patch can stick to the skin, allowing the vaccine to dissolve no need for a traditional injection. Also, uOnce printed, patches can be stored for months at room temperature saving the need for low temperatures for conservationone of the main logistical obstacles in the distribution of vaccines.
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To test their new method, the researchers used this printer to produce heat-stable RNA vaccines for Covid-19.Most vaccines, including mRNA ones, must be refrigerated while in storage, making it difficult to ship them to places where those temperatures cannot be maintained. In addition, they require syringes, needles, and trained healthcare professionals to administer them.
To get around this hurdle, the MIT team set out to find a way to produce vaccines on demand. His original motivation, before Covid-19 hit, was to build a device that could rapidly produce and deploy vaccines during disease outbreaks like Ebola. Such a device could be sent to a remote village, refugee camp, or military base to enable rapid vaccination of large numbers of people.
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Instead of producing traditional injectable vaccines, the researchers decided to work with a new type of vaccine delivery based on fingernail-sized patches containing hundreds of microneedles. These vaccines are now in development for many diseases, including polio, measles, and rubella. When the patch is applied to the skin, the tips of the needles dissolve in the skin and release the vaccine.
“When Covid-19 began, concerns about vaccine stability and its access motivated us to try to incorporate RNA vaccines into microneedle patches,” explains the study co-author. John Aristotle. The “ink” also contains polymers that can be easily molded into the correct shape and then remain stable for weeks or months, even when stored at or above room temperature.
Current printer can produce 100 vaccine patches in 48 hours, but future versions will have higher capacity
Inside the printer, a robotic arm injects the vaccine into microneedle molds, and a vacuum chamber below the mold sucks the ink all the way down, making sure it reaches the tips of the needles. Once the molds are filled, they take a day or two to dry. The current prototype can produce 100 patches in 48 hours, but the researchers anticipate that future versions could be designed to have greater capacity.
To test the long-term stability of their vaccines, the researchers tested their patches in mice with one of the recently developed RNA vaccines against Covid-19, demonstrating similar efficacy to traditional injected ones. Now the scientists they plan to adapt the process to produce all types of vaccines, including those based on proteins or inactivated viruses.
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“This work is particularly exciting as it we are facing the possibility of producing vaccines on demand”, declares a researcher outside the study Joseph DeSimone, professor of translational medicine and chemical engineering at Stanford University. “With the potential to scale up vaccine manufacturing and improve stability at higher temperatures, mobile vaccine printers can facilitate widespread access to RNA vaccines, reach places where they were previously unthinkable, and save hundreds of thousands of lives across the world. everyone”.
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