A needle free way to help lick the forthcoming influenza pandemic has been proposed: "under tongue" vaccination.
We could all be sticking out our tongues at doctors in a few years: as well as helping to appease needle phobic patients, the "sublingual" route could used to protect against a wide range of infections and, as a bonus, generates wider protection in the body.
Joo-Hye Song of the Mucosal Immunology Section, International Vaccine Institute, IVI, Seoul, and colleagues report tests of the method today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
A solution of the vaccine is applied to the floor of the mouth and, thanks to the the high density of blood vessels in the mucous membranes there, immune system cells capture the vaccine and migrate quickly through the body, without the vaccine being degraded, as in the stomach.
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Sublingual bio-warfare? No thanks.
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