Imagine a world where a vaccine is a cream you apply to your skin instead of a needle a health worker sticks into one of your muscles.
Best of all, it’s cheap, completely painless, and not followed by fever, swelling, redness, or arm pain. No need to queue to get it either.
That’s the vision Stanford researchers hope to achieve with a new tetanus vaccine derived from a bacterial species found on the skin of virtually all humans; one that is largely harmless to us, but will nonetheless trigger a fierce antibody response if it crosses the skin barrier or enters the bloodstream.
A team of scientists led by Stanford Ph.D. in bioengineering Dr. Michael Fischbach hypothesized that Staphylococcus epidermidis, the harmless and ubiquitous bacteria, could be used as a delivery mechanism for the pathogen in a vaccine.
During the experiments, Fischbach find that when the S. epidermidis The bacteria were engineered to contain a small genetic trace of the tetanus bacteria, the immune system targeted it just as fiercely as before, while driving a distinct immune response to the tetanus gene of the type one would expect of a vaccine.
The team learned through closer examination of S. epidermidis that it naturally produces a large protein called Aap. This tree-shaped molecule is five times larger than normal proteins, and its large “branches” protrude from the cell wall. Fischbach and his team believe this is why the immune system’s response to this microbe is so robust: immune cells in our skin and hair follicles can study it even without coming into direct contact with it.
Mice, which do not have native colonization of S.epidermidis, were found to have superior immune responses to the vaccine against this virus after it was dabbed directly on their fur.
Fischbach and his team determined that this could form the basis of a topical vaccine, in which the bacteria is engineered to carry the genetic material for humanity’s most dangerous diseases. Other tests carried out on mice showed that the application of S. epidermidis designed to carry tetanus generated enough antibodies to protect mice against six times the lethal dose of tetanus toxin – a truly astonishing discovery.
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“We think it will work against viruses, bacteria, fungi and single-celled parasites,” says Fischbach. told reporters at Stanford University. “Most vaccines contain ingredients that stimulate an inflammatory response and make you a little sick. These bugs don’t do that. We expect that you will not experience any inflammation.
Most vaccines given to humans come in two forms: a live vaccine or a dead vaccine. Live vaccines contain the real substance, and the side effects one would expect from infection are not uncommon. In dead vaccines, the virus or bacteria cannot replicate. The antibody response to a dead vaccine is enhanced in modern vaccines by the presence of an “adjuvant”, such as aluminum salts.
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Aluminum is a toxic heavy metal like cadmium or lead, and identifying it when detected with the virus causes the immune system to react much more seriously. The advantage of what Fischbach called the “plug-and-play” vaccine cream developed in his lab is that the adjuvant is a harmless skin bacteria that already exists on the skin and hair of almost every human on the planet. .
Fischbach believes testing of the cream will begin in humans within 2 to 3 years.
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