By Jacob M. Thompson – Winepress News
With so many people having a phobia and hatred of needles and vaccinations, a group of scientists have created a potential new way of inoculating patients: though ultrasound.
This innovative form of vaccination was showcased during the Acoustics 2023 event held in Sydney, Australia, co-hosted by The Acoustical Society of America (ASA) and the Australian Acoustical Society, on December 4th to the 8th.
According to a press release from ASA: “The scientific conference brings together acousticians, researchers, musicians, and more experts from around the world. While in Sydney, they will describe their work on various topics including needle-free ultrasound-enhanced vaccine delivery, automated pop song mashups, impacts of acoustic design in prisons, and auditory sensory augmentation to support table tennis games for people with vision loss.”
Published one day ahead of the conference, ASA delved deeper into this novel process of vaccination. Darcy Dunn-Lawless, a doctoral student at the University of Oxford’s Institute of Biomedical Engineering, presented their team’s findings at the forum.
ASA provided an overview of the science experiment and how future vaccinations could be delivered this way:
Though initial in vivo tests reported 700 times fewer vaccine molecules were delivered by the cavitation approach compared to conventional injection, the cavitation approach produced a higher immune response.
The researchers theorize this could be due to the immune-rich skin the ultrasonic delivery targets in contrast to the muscles that receive the jab.
The result is a more efficient vaccine that could help reduce costs and increase efficacy with little risk of side effects.
Dunn-Lawless works as part of a larger team under the supervision of Dr. Mike Gray, Professor Bob Carlisle, and Professor Constantin Coussios within Oxford’s Biomedical Ultrasonics, Biotherapy and Biopharmaceuticals Laboratory (BUBBL).
Their cavitation approach may be particularly conducing to DNA vaccines that are currently difficult to deliver. With cavitation able to help crack open the membranes blocking therapeutic access to the cell nucleus, the other advantages of DNA vaccines, like a focused immune response, low infection risk, and shelf stability, can be better utilized.
Dunn-Lawless said in a statement:
Our method relies on an acoustic effect called ‘cavitation,’ which is the formation and popping of bubbles in response to a sound wave.
We aim to harness the concentrated bursts of mechanical energy produced by these bubble collapses in three main ways. First, to clear passages through the outer layer of dead skin cells and allow vaccine molecules to pass through. Second, to act as a pump that drives the drug molecules into these passages. Last, to open up the membranes surrounding the cells themselves, since some types of vaccine must get inside a cell to function.
In my opinion, the main potential side effect is universal to all physical techniques in medicine: If you apply too much energy to the body, you can damage tissue. Exposure to excessive cavitation can cause mechanical damage to cells and structures.
However, there is good evidence that such damage can be avoided by limiting exposure, so a key part of my research is to try and fully identify where this safety threshold lies for vaccine delivery.