The tattoo of the future may be for your health rather than just your image. German scientists said that work on mice showed that tattooing was a more effective way to deliver a new generation of experimental DNA vaccines than standard injection s into the muscle. Using fragments of DNA to stimulate an immune response is seen as a promising way of making better vaccines for everything from flu to cancer. Until now, however, the concept has been hampered by its low efficiency.
“Delivery of DNA via tattooing could be a way for wide spread commercial application of DNA vaccines,” Tattooing is a more effective way to deliver new generation of experimental DNA vaccines said Martin Mueller of the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg. There are currently no approved DNA vaccines on the market but several drug companies are conducting clinical trials and investing in the technology.
Pfizer Inc, the world’s biggest drugmaker, placed a sizeable bet on DNA vaccines in October 2006 when it bought British pioneer PowderMed.
Mueller and his colleagues tested tattooing by vaccination mice with a protein fragment of human papillomavirus, or HPV, a sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer. No ink was used, so the tattoo left no permanent mark. They found three doses of DNA vaccine by tattooing produced at least 16 times higher antibody level than three intramuscular injections. The far stronger response reflects the fact that giving a tattoo with vibrating needle causes a wound and inflammation. As a result, the tattoo -measuring around 1cm square –is more painful but more efficient than a normal injection.
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