Scientists continue to look for methods to curb the spread of the coronavirus. For example, Australian researchers are working on a vaccine patch that is also intended to protect against severe courses with the omicron variant. What’s behind it.
The search for vaccines against Sars-CoV-2 is far from over. Researchers continue to look for vaccines that can prevent severe courses or even an infection.
Because the vaccines that are currently being administered were all developed for the wild type of the virus. So they no longer work as well against the variants that keep appearing, such as Omicron.
But we may not only need new vaccines – we also need a new way of administering them. At least that’s what a new study from Australia suggests. Scientists from the University of Queensland have now published study results on a new vaccination method – using a patch.
The researchers presented the so-called HD-MAP technology (high-density microarray patch) in the journal “Vaccine”. Here, a patch is applied to the skin and can thus “penetrate precisely into the skin layers that are rich in immune cells,” explains study author Christopher McMillan in the science magazine “Sciencedaily” – and reports on the pleasing results of the mouse study:
“We found that vaccination via a patch was about 11 times more effective in controlling the omicron variant than the same vaccine administered via a needle.” The scientists had different vaccines, both injection and patch administered. The research was conducted in collaboration with Brisbane-based biotechnology company Vaxxas.
“Patch technology has the potential to offer a new – and more effective – weapon in our arsenal,” McMillan assesses the prospects of such patches. The large number of mutations possessed by the omicron variant have given the virus the ability to evade the immune responses generated by current vaccines.
On the one hand, the patches are more effective than the needle-based vaccines. In addition, these are also easier to administer. Nevertheless, it remains “important to emphasize that existing vaccines are still an effective means of combating serious diseases”. You have to remain vigilant.
The vaccine patch is not the only new method that scientists are considering for further corona vaccinations. For example, several research teams are currently working on the development of vaccines that are administered through the nose. They should trigger a so-called mucosal immunity there. This means that they fight and neutralize the virus directly at the entry point, the mucous membranes.
Top virologist Drosten, for example, sees such a vaccine as the “next milestone” in the fight against the corona virus: in the form of a “live vaccination” with a weakened virus or a modern variant of it. “You would have to put it in your nose and then trigger mucosal immunity. That would be much better transmission protection, it would be the next milestone,” said Drosten.
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