A Microneedle Vaccine Patch Printer For Thermostable MRNA Vaccines

What if you were able to get vaccinated as easily as putting an adhesive bandage on? Microneedle Patches (MNP), as they are called, promise to deliver on this promise. These patches could be used for diagnostic purposes, and one day they may replace the need for blood draws. MNPs are manufactured in a highly manual and laborious process. In a recent paper in Nature Biotechnology Researchers detail the construction of and testing a MNP (microneedle vaccine) printer that can print dissolving Polymers containing stabilized MRNA vaccine.

As usual, these mRNAs are placed in a liquid-nanoparticle container and mixed with a soluble polymer. This mixture is then applied to a mould and dried. It retains the microneedle-like structure of the original mold. In tests on pigskin, MNPs penetrated the skin and delivered the vaccine in the needles. It was shown that the patches could be stored for up to six months. They would therefore be ideal for vaccination distribution in places where refrigeration is not possible.

Researchers have previously investigated the use of MNPs to deliver vaccines, e.g. Delivering rotaviruses and polioviruses vaccines, and a study in 2021 in Nature Biomedical Engineering Researchers examined the viability and feasibility of using MNPs in order to quickly sample protein biomarkers within interstitial tissue. This would allow for the diagnosis of certain biomarkers to be as simple as putting the patch on, removing it, and examining the results, eliminating the need to draw blood or sample large quantities of interstitial tissue for external analyses.

The concept of the MVP printer and other similar MNP printers could be commercialized to allow for a much shorter supply chain in regions that are less developed, and also enable diagnostics which is very expensive and difficult today.