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Focus on the Flu
Taking Aim Against Possible Flu Pandemic
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If a flu pandemic should occur, the successful vaccine candidate needs to be:
- safe
- produced quickly
- effective
- administered rapidly
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Joel Haynes, Ph.D. | |
Joel Haynes, Ph.D., an NIAID-supported scientist and researcher at PowderJect Vaccines, thinks he has the answer: a DNA vaccine that's administered, not by needle, but by a mechanism known as the particle-mediated epidermal delivery (PMED) device.
A PMED DNA vaccine delivers the antigen-producing genetic material of a virus into a person's skin cells directly; the disease-producing part of the virus is left out of the vaccine. When certain cells receive the DNA, they display the antigen on their surface, signaling the body to produce antibodies and other immune responses. |
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DNA vaccines are considered safe because they don't include the virus, and cannot cause disease. They can be developed quickly because there is no need for the use of fertilized eggs, the conventional growth method, which can take six months between the time in which a new strain is identified and a vaccine is ready. And the body responds to a DNA vaccine as if it has been exposed to a live virus—a more robust immune reaction—rather than a killed or attenuated one.
Dr. Haynes and his research team are currently planning three clinical trials in which a PMED device is used to administer powdered DNA vaccines that encode several types of the hemagglutinin antigen in type A flu.
According to Dr. Haynes, the PMED device, which uses high-pressure helium gas and biologically inert gold particles to deliver DNA vaccines directly into cells, is more effective than a needle and, therefore, requires smaller quantities of vaccine per dose. If his plans to create a reusable prototype are also realized, the PMED device could become an important tool for large-scale, rapid, mass vaccination efforts of a DNA flu vaccine. |
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