Development of microneedle array patch for COVID-19 vaccine delivery

新冠肺炎是一种全球性流行病，没有有效的治疗和预防药物。鉴于SARS-CoV-2的高传染性和疾病的严重性，迫切需要疫苗来应对这种新型冠状病毒的感染。到目前为止，在临床前测试和临床试验的不同阶段，正在探索各种类型的候选疫苗，包括基于RNA和DNA的疫苗、载体和减毒病毒以及重组蛋白。然而，也存在可能的不利影响和局限性。例如，基于RNA/DNA的疫苗可引发免疫反应，导致关键器官(如大脑和心脏)的有害后果，免疫原性低，免疫原半衰期短，载体传递效率低。为了克服这些问题，我们将与加拿大一家生物技术公司合作，开发用于输送多组分疫苗的微针阵列，以提高新冠肺炎的效力，同时增加疫苗接种的安全性。

COVID-19 is a global pandemic with no effective therapeutic and preventive agents. Given the high infectivity of the SARS-CoV-2 and severity of the disease, vaccines are urgently needed to tackle the infection of this novel coronavirus. Thus far, various types of vaccine candidates, in different stages of preclinical testing and clinical trials, are being explored, including RNA- and DNA-based, vectored and attenuated virus, and recombinant proteins. However, possible adverse effects and limitations exist. For example, RNA/DNA-based vaccines can trigger an immune response leading to detrimental consequences in key organs (e.g. brain and heart), low immunogenicity, short half-life of immunogen, and inefficient delivery of vectors. To overcome these problems, we will work with a Canadian biotechnology company to develop microneedle arrays for delivering multicomponent vaccine to boost the efficacy while increasing the safety of vaccination for COVID-19.