needle-free measles vaccine heading to clinical trials

[bluets]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0816170913.htm

I'm sure I can imagine conspiracy scenarios... like mass uninformed vaccinations through air handling systems... but if it gets to people who may benefit, and in a less costly manner, this may be a good thing.

[2boyzmama]

I would much rather prefer an inhaled version vs an injected version, as the natural course of the virus is to enter via the mucus membranes. So I can see the benefit here.

But, one thing caught my attention from the article...it said something about infants...this is a live-virus, they aren't seriously considering giving it to infants, are they?? I imagine initially this will actually cause an INCREASE in mild measles cases because everyone will be shedding it through secretions for some period after inhaling it. And infants won't have the immune systems to confer lasting immunity yet, so what's the point???

[bluets]

here's the original abstract:
http://oasys2.confex.com/acs/238nm/t...m/P1305474.HTM

Robert E. Sievers, [e-mail], CIRES, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Center for Pharmaceutical Biochemistry, University of Colorado, 215 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0215

The focus of our Gates Grand Challenges in Global Health project is to develop needle-free vaccine delivery systems. 1) Our team has reformulated the injectable Edmonston-Zagreb live attenuated measles virus vaccine, replacing sorbitol with myo-inositol. Our patented CAN-BD® process was used to produce micronized measles vaccine dry powder with residual moisture levels of 0.3%-1.3%. The dry powder vaccine is stable for at least 1 year at 2-8 ºC and shows less than 1 log loss of virus infectivity at 37 ºC for 7 days. 2) We have demonstrated that inhaled myo-inositol powders are non-toxic in a GLP toxicology study in Sprague-Dawley rats. 3) Our team has developed two simple, low cost active dry powder inhalers (DPIs) with performances virtually equivalent to an FDA-approved active inhaler. 4) In two established measles vaccine animal models, Cotton rats and rhesus macaques, our active DPI's delivered aerosolized measles vaccine dry powder by at-liberty breathing. The microparticles rapidly dissolve and the virus replicates in the aqueous film in respiratory tracts so no water-for-injection is needed. The dry powders are individually sealed in peelable blister packs or rupturable capsules to minimize bacterial contamination encountered in multi-dose vials. Delivery of the powder to the lungs, followed by viral replication, was confirmed by RT-PCR. A measles-specific immune response was also demonstrated. In macaques our vaccine formulation induced high avidity, neutralizing antibodies and T-cell responses equal to or better than that seen with injected liquid vaccine. Measles vaccine dry powders in unit dose packaging have the potential to effectively vaccinate infants, children, and adults by inhalation, avoiding many of the problems associated with liquid vaccines delivered by injection. Supported in part by FNIH.

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remember that this is an abstract and written by an atmospheric chemist. neat technological application (from his point of view?) but i bet he has little to nothing to do with the clinical trials... though i'm sure he and his institution have already filed that patent...