Simple-to-apply, needle-free vaccine patch developed against Zika infection

NEW DELHI: Scientists have developed a simple-to-apply, needle-free vaccine patch that may protect people from the potentially deadly mosquito-borne Zika virus.

The experimental vaccine developed by researchers at the University of Adelaide in Australia elicited an effective immune response to Zika virus in mice.

The vaccine, described in the journal Molecular Therapy Nucleic Acids, uses the high-density microarray patch (HD-MAP) patch developed by the University of Queensland (UQ) in Australia for delivery.

Zika virus is a risk to people across the Pacific, Southeast Asia, India, Africa and South and Central America.

“We can change the way we combat Zika virus with the HD-MAP patch because it is an effective, pain-free, simple to apply, and easy to store vaccination method,” said Danushka Wijesundara, a researcher at The University of Queensland.

“HD-MAP delivers the vaccine to immune cells beneath the skin’s surface with thousands of tiny microprojections,” Wijesundara said.

In the pre-clinical trial, the vaccine provided rapid protection against live Zika virus, targeting a specific protein called NS1 which is crucial to the virus’s survival.

In February 2016, the World Health Organization declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern when Zika virus spread across 40 countries in Latin America, causing more than 1.5 million confirmed or suspected cases in a 6-month period.

Limited global surveillance shows Zika virus is active in at least 89 countries and territories but there is no currently licensed vaccine, said Branka Grubor-Bauk, an Associate Professor at the University

of Adelaide.